BY ISABEL EVERETT
WildArk Ambassador, Chris Hemsworth and wife Elsa Pataky have ventured to the Barrington Tops to release Tasmanian devils back into the wild on mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years.
Aussie Ark, Global Wildlife Conservation and WildArk have collaborated to released the animals, including Lenny and Lisa, into a 400-hectare wildlife sanctuary on Barrington Tops.
Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth Release Tasmanian Devils in the wild at Barrington Tops
Tasmanian Devil Lisa
Tasmanian Devil Lenny
“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."
"Because of this reintroduction and all of the hard work leading up to it, someday we will see Tasmanian devils living throughout the great eastern forests as they did 3,000 years ago.”
Tasmanian devils vanished entirely from mainland Australia in large part because they were outcompeted by introduced dingoes, which hunt in packs.
Dingoes never made it to Tasmania, but across the island state, a transmissible, painful and fatal disease called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD)—the only known contagious cancer—decimated up to 90 percent of the wild population of Tasmanian devils.
Just 25,000 devils are left in the wild of Tasmania today, with Australia having world’s worst mammal extinction rate.
For the last decade, the Aussie Ark team has been building an insurance population of Tasmanian devils all leading up to the reintroduction, which took place on September 10.
Tasmanian devils vanished entirely from mainland Australia in large part because they were outcompeted by introduced dingoes, which hunt in packs.
Dingoes never made it to Tasmania, but across the island state, a transmissible, painful and fatal disease called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD)—the only known contagious cancer—decimated up to 90 percent of the wild population of Tasmanian devils.
Just 25,000 devils are left in the wild of Tasmania today, with Australia having world’s worst mammal extinction rate.
Twenty-six total devils now call the wild of mainland Australia home.
Devil Joey
Devils Shortly After Release
“Without Aussie Ark’s incredible work and perseverance over all of these years, the recent devil reintroduction would not have been possible and instead of looking forward to the recovery of the species, we would be watching the devil slip into extinction,” said Don Church, president of Global Wildlife Conservation. “This is an incredible example of how to rewild our planet, bringing back the natural systems to the benefit of all life on Earth.”
Tasmanian Devil Jackson
