Probably not but more importantly, eleven of these little guys were released back onto the mainland back in 2020, effectively more than doubling their numbers.
If you’re wondering, there are 26, now. That’s 26 more than there were for 3000-odd years. That’s a lot of time to be gone for. Damn, that’s a lot of responsibility.
The lastest eleven devils to be released were done so with the help of Chris Hemsworth, a god amongst men, and Elsa Pataky into the 1000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Barrington Tops National Park, north of Sydney.
The wildlife sanctuary will prevent the spread of disease (these bad boys are rid of the painful and fatal Devil Facial Tumor Disease), feral pests and noxious weeds ruining their new digs. The sanctuary will also be keeping out cars so that the devils don’t turn into bloody chip-stealing seagulls.
The little devils were selected based on their likelihood to mate with one another because this is a long-term project with some mighty goals in place.
Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark, which released the devils in partnership with Global Wildlife Conservation and WildArk, said that “not only is this the reintroduction of one of Australia’s beloved animals, but of an animal that will engineer the entire environment around it, restoring and rebalancing our forest ecology after centuries of devastation from introduced foxes and cats and other invasive predators.”
Another forty Tasmanian devils will be released over the next two years so hopefully, we’ll be seeing these little guys soon all around the eastern forests of Australia. If you also want to see the Tasmanian devil back on the mainland, then help Aussie Ark out by adopting a little devil yourself.
For more information, and to actually keep up to date with how the Tassie devils are doing, jump across to the Devil Comeback website where you will soon be able to follow the journey of Lisa and Jacksen back on the mainland.