Tasmanian devils have been reintroduced into the wild in mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years.

In early September, Aussie Ark, an Australian NGO, released a number of Tasmanian devils into a 400-hectare (988-acre) wildlife sanctuary in Barrington Tops, north of Sydney, This came after a successful initial trial where 15 of the animals were released in early March.

Tasmania devils are the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial and are the size of small dog. They once lived in the wild of mainland Australia, but died out after the arrival of dingoes and since then have been restricted in the island of Tasmania.

There are now just 25,000 wild devils left in Tasmania due to a blowout of a deadly mouth cancer in 1996, which killed 90% of the native population. Since then, NGOs such as Aussie Park have started breeding programs to prevent the extinction of this endangered species.

Being native apex predators, Tasmanian devils hunt feral cats and foxes that feed on other endangered species. The reintroduction program therefore not only helps the devils, but it also protects other endangered and susceptible species in mainland Australia.

Don Church, president of Global Wildlife Conservation, has described the reintroduction as “an incredible example of how to re-wild our planet, bringing back the natural systems to the benefit of all life on Earth.”

Aussie Park now plans on reintroducing 40 more Tasmanian devils over the next two years.

This is not the first that animals have been reintroduced into the wild. In the early 1990’s, wolves were reintroduced into the Yellowstone National Park in the USA. NGOs in UK have also successfully released the Eurasian beavers back into rivers in Devon.

Courtesy of Marco Poon

Main Source: BBC, CNN