Tasmanian Devils set paw on mainland Australia after 3,000 years

By Cordelia Hsu

 

A Tasmanian devil reacts in Australia in this undated handout image. Aussie Ark/Handout via REUTERS

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian Devil, has been returned to the wild on Australia's mainland for the first time in 3,000 years.

 

Actor couple Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky joined conservation groups last month to release 11 of the animals into a wildlife sanctuary in New South Wales, with more releases to follow.

 

Devils, the size of a small dog and made famous by the fierce Looney Tunes cartoon character known as "Taz", were listed as endangered on the United Nation's Red List in 2008.

 

It is the "the first time in 3,000 years, or thereabouts, that the Tasmanian Devil has roamed mainland forests and as an apex predator, it's critically important," said Tim Faulkner, president of conservation group Aussie Ark.

 

Aussie Ark, which has worked on the programme with Global Wildlife Conservation and WildArk, has been breeding young devils and plans to release 20 more next year, and another 20 the following year.

 

Faulkner said it was a "monumental" moment in rebuilding Australia's ecosystem.

 

"This release of devils will be the first of many," he said. "We've bred nearly 400 joeys, and we're at the point now that we're able to harvest some to return to the wild."

 

Hemsworth, best known for playing Thor in Marvel Cinematic Universe films, said: "We've laid some traps to catch the devils, and then we're going to release them out into the wild."

 

Tasmanian Devils were wiped out from the mainland after being hunted by dingoes, a pack animal, and have been confined to the island state of Tasmania. But numbers there too have dropped since the 1990s due to a facial tumour disease.

 

Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world and the re-introduction will help re-balance the ecology that was damaged by the introduction of invasive predators, Faulkner said.

 

(Reporting by Cordelia Hsu in Sydney, writing by Himani Sarkar; editing by Richard Pullin)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-06

 

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Maybe they can take on the cane toads?

9 minutes ago, onebir said:

Maybe they can take on the cane toads?

Nah, only a 9-iron effectively takes on cane toads ????

"This release of devils will be the first of many," he said. "We've bred nearly 400 joeys, and we're at the point now that we're able to harvest some to return to the wild."

 

It's unfortunate when people try to play God... Such conceit and self-centeredness. Let nature take its' course, it is a self-regulating system that does not give two <deleted> about the disappearance of this or that species. If anything its' own wonderful purpose is to flush out the ones incapable of survival and self-reliance.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian Devil

Yes, Yoda! It´s all about 8 kg per devil.

whenever man interferes with nature by introducing new speices( i appreciate the Tasmanian devil was formerly a native of Australia) it nearly always ends in tears.

folks were very concerned about the local devil in our small town been seen at night ......

I told them don't worry .....  I married her .

the Dingoes will again be ecstatic 

 

 - and now being more modern,

will bulldoze the TD population, with their Chamberlains... 

4 hours ago, Seik said:

"This release of devils will be the first of many," he said. "We've bred nearly 400 joeys, and we're at the point now that we're able to harvest some to return to the wild."

 

It's unfortunate when people try to play God... Such conceit and self-centeredness. Let nature take its' course, it is a self-regulating system that does not give two <deleted> about the disappearance of this or that species. If anything its' own wonderful purpose is to flush out the ones incapable of survival and self-reliance.

Seik bet you play a fine hand at  poker ! The game not the machines !

If things go bad this guy can handle them

 

 

Man's playing God has been very successful at one thing... in driving species to extinction or near-extinction. Here's a list of 10 extinct species of the last 100 years [link] and I'm sure there were many more in the 19^th century such as the passenger pigeon, at one time the most abundant bird species in North America and was hunted to extinction. Luckily, the North American buffalo was saved from extinction, but just barely.

 

Thailand's overhunting and destruction of the Schomburgk's deer's habitat [link]. These deer used to exist in the Bangkok area, but you can imagine what happened to them. Schomburgk's deer may still exist in Laos, but this has not been confirmed.

14 hours ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

Nah, only a 9-iron effectively takes on cane toads ????

Steel belt radials and motor mowers are also quite effective.

16 hours ago, onebir said:

Maybe they can take on the cane toads?

And hopefully they enjoy eating feral cats.

Packs of feral dogs will eliminate them again .much worse than dingos They kill for fun .

Hope this works out better than the reintroduction of Grey wolves in Canada and US.  They are killing all the deer, elk etc.  They have become so invasive that we are encouraged to kill one any time they cross our path.  I guess some biologist thought this was a good idea at the time.  Turns out to be a <deleted> move

17 hours ago, Seik said:

"This release of devils will be the first of many," he said. "We've bred nearly 400 joeys, and we're at the point now that we're able to harvest some to return to the wild."

 

It's unfortunate when people try to play God... Such conceit and self-centeredness. Let nature take its' course, it is a self-regulating system that does not give two <deleted> about the disappearance of this or that species. If anything its' own wonderful purpose is to flush out the ones incapable of survival and self-reliance.

Humans created this problem in the first place.  They were hunted due to nuisance value of killing farm animals, similar to the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger.  Numbers were reduced to such a low level that inbreeding occurred.  This means their DNA is so similar, their immune system doesn't recognise that a foreign body has entered.  When they bite each other during mating or just playing, the disease is therefore spread.  It is the only form of cancer in any animal in the world that is transmitted.  Absolutely hideous disease that results in tumours pushing through their eyes and various other facial parts, causing a slow, agonising death.  So yeah, it's a wonderful thing the Packer family funded this sanctuary to ensure their ongoing existence.

Fast-forward to 2050 where the Aussie media is bemoaning the Tasmanian Devil problem plaguing the country-side.

4 hours ago, Mick501 said:

It is the only form of cancer in any animal in the world that is transmitted.  Absolutely hideous disease that results in tumours pushing through their eyes and various other facial parts, causing a slow, agonising death.  So yeah, it's a wonderful thing the Packer family funded this sanctuary to ensure their ongoing existence.

Great point, that's absolutely awful, I'm not surprised at all.

1 hour ago, Seik said:

Great point, that's absolutely awful, I'm not surprised at all.

 

Edited October 7, 20205 yr by Mick501

On 10/6/2020 at 3:12 PM, Buffy Frobisher said:

Nah, only a 9-iron effectively takes on cane toads ????

40 ton trucks take the air of them 

On 10/6/2020 at 2:51 AM, webfact said:

But numbers there too have dropped since the 1990s due to a facial tumour disease.

Which other Australian animals will catch this disease?