Hellish roads the latest threat to endangered devils
SPEEDING drivers have killed almost 160 endangered Tasmanian devils in the past 18 months on one 24km stretch of road, leaving animal lovers despairing on an island with the world’s worst record for roadkill.
On average, 32 animals die every hour on roads in Tasmania, where about half a million people live. They kill more creatures per kilometre than anywhere else.
Almost 300,000 animals are killed on the island each year, with the devils suffering as dairy farms and wind farms spread into their habit.
Alice Carson, of Woolnorth in northwest Tasmania, said: ‘‘It’s very much a cultural thing. Lots of people think the devils are vermin.’’
‘We are just smashing them.’
Along with other volunteers, she documents animals killed in the area. The devils around the town are free of the infectious facial tumour that has killed at least 80% of the species on the island.
‘‘This population is unique . . . yet we are just smashing them,’’ Carson said.
‘‘We had 28 dead in two weeks. It’s nothing to see three a day.
‘‘There are probably more getting hit but dying later in the bush. We have trucks doing 150 to 160kph. Reducing the speed limit and ... policing it with a speed camera would be a start.’’
Carson and others fear that traffic on the stretch of road leading to dairy farms and a wind farm threatens the last of Tasmania’s healthy devils.
The largest living carnivorous marsupial, devils can grow as big as medium-sized dogs. They once lived on the Australian mainland but are now found only in the wilds of Tasmania, surviving on small prey such as frogs, birds, fish and insects.
Devil sightings have fallen by 80% over the past 20 years, confirming that the species is in rapid decline.
Dr Collette Harmsen, a veterinary surgeon, said Tasmania’s verdant roadsides attracted plant-eating animals, making them vulnerable to speeding vehicles. Plans for a 122-turbine wind farm would increase traffic along the road.