General News
30 May, 2022
Tasmanian Devils Settle Into New North Queensland Home
THE three brothers have arrived from Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo as part of a highly successful breeding program that has brought the species back from the brink of extinction due to the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD).
Made famous by the whirling Looney Tunes character “Taz”, these adorable yet feisty carnivorous marsupials, the only ones of their kind in Far North Queensland, are sure to be a hit with returning local, domestic and international visitors.
Rainforestation Wildlife Team Leader David Kelly said humans might be happy to be coming out of a COVID pandemic, but Tassie Devils have had it tough after more than twenty years of struggling to survive a fatal cancer that threatened their very existence.
“First identified in the mid-1990s, this aggressive and highly transmissible cancer ravaged Devil populations across Tasmania, with the conservation response to create a community of disease-free Devils in captivity on the mainland,” Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly said the successful program had seen the establishment of several healthy wild populations from captive-bred animals, which meant it was changing from a “breed to release” to a “breed to maintain” strategy.
“Put simply, a “breed to release” program aims to breed as many animals as possible while maintaining good genetic diversity in the captive population,” he said.
“To provide an opportunity of eventually releasing significant numbers of healthy captive-bred animals back into their wild habitat.
“A “breed to maintain” program means that the facilities that house Tasmanian Devils are now looking to maintain a healthy captive breeding population, not to continue to grow the number of individuals in the program.”
Rainforestation will be hosting additional Tasmanian Devil Presentations on Saturday, May 28, at 11am and 1pm to celebrate their arrival.
Wildlife presentations are a daily activity in the Koala and Wildlife Park at Rainforestation, and alongside the extended Devils presentations, there’ll be plenty more to see, including a Feeding Presentation featuring resident 5-metre Estuarine Crocodile ‘Jack the Ripper’.
The team at Rainforestation will be working with local schools on a competition to come up with names for the three fellas whilst they settle into their home in the coming weeks.
Rainforestation Nature Park is situated on the Kennedy Highway, five minutes from Kuranda Village and 30 minutes from Cairns.
