Tasmanian devils back on mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years

TASMANIAN devils – the carnivorous marsupials whose frenzied eating habits won the animals cartoon fame – have returned to mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years.

“Seeing those devils released into a wild landscape, it’s a really emotional moment,” said Liz Gabriel, director of Aussie Ark, which led the release effort in partnership with other conservation groups.

The 11 most recently released devils began exploring their new home once they were freed from cages at the near-1,000-acre Barrington Tops wildlife refuge in New South Wales, about 120 miles north of Sydney.

Tasmanian devils, which were once called Sarcophilus satanicus or “Satanic flesh-lover”, went extinct in mainland Australia before the arrival of Europeans. Scientists believe the introduction of carnivorous dingoes, a surge in the indigenous human population and a devastating dry season cause by a prolonged El Nino caused the devil to migrate to present-day Tasmania, said University of Tasmania ecologist Menna Jones.

Devils have been protected in Australia since 1941, and conservationists have worked to bolster their populations for years, citing their importance as top predators that can suppress invasive species – such as foxes and feral cats – and in turn protect smaller species and biodiversity.

One of the biggest blows to conservation efforts came in the 1990s when a communicable cancer called devil facial tumour disease, which passes between devils through their bites while mating and causes large tumours that prevent them from eating, reduced the population from 140,000 to as few as 20,000.

In response, researchers established an insurance population of cancerfree devils in wild-type enclosures in Australia’s island state of Tasmania. But the new releases are the first time the mammals – all of which have tested negative for the cancer – have been released on the mainland in a protected wild landscape.