Reserve for endangered Tasmanian devil created on Australia mainland
September 21, 2011 (AAP) – A strip of dense bushland has been fenced off in a corner of NSW to create a safe haven for Tasmanian devils and rescue them from the brink of extinction. It’s not predators the devils need protecting from, but a contagious facial cancer that has wiped out between 60 and 90 per cent of the wild population in Tasmania. The Hunter Valley breeding program called Devil Ark, launched today, aims to breed large numbers of Tasmanian devils away from the highly contagious devil facial tumour disease. […] DFTD has slashed Tasmania’s devil population from 200,000 to an estimated 10,000 to 15,000, and the animals are in danger of becoming extinct within a decade. Devil Ark founder John Weigel said the program began with 43 Tasmanian devils in January this year and has already reached 66. “It is part of a concerted effort on the mainland to establish an `insurance population’ to preserve the genetic variation of the Tasmanian devil for 30 years,” Mr Weigel, who is also director of the Australian Reptile Park, told AAP. “We’re looking at 360 devils by the year 2016 … we may grow to the potential of 1500 animals.” […]
