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| Down Under |
| Tasmanian Devils set paw on mainland Australia after 3,000 years |
| 2020-10-07 |
| [YAHOO] The world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian Devil, has been returned to the wild on Australia's mainland for the first time in 3,000 years.Actor couple Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky joined conservation groups last month to release 11 of the animals into a wildlife sanctuary in New South Wales, with more releases to follow. Devils, the size of a small dog and made famous by the fierce Looney Tunes cartoon character known as "Taz", were listed as endangered on the United Nation's Red List in 2008. It is the "the first time in 3,000 years, or thereabouts, that the Tasmanian Devil has roamed mainland forests and as an apex predator, it's critically important," said Tim Faulkner, president of conservation group Aussie Ark. Aussie Ark, which has worked on the programme with Global Wildlife Conservation and WildArk, has been breeding young devils and plans to release 20 more next year, and another 20 the following year. Faulkner said it was a "monumental" moment in rebuilding Australia's ecosystem. "This release of devils will be the first of many," he said. "We've bred nearly 400 joeys, and we're at the point now that we're able to harvest some to return to the wild." Hemsworth, best known for playing Thor in Marvel Cinematic Universe films, said: "We've laid some traps to catch the devils, and then we're going to release them out into the wild." Tasmanian Devils were wiped out from the mainland after being hunted by dingoes, a pack animal, and have been confined to the island state of Tasmania. But numbers there too have dropped since the 1990s due to a facial tumour disease. Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world and the re-introduction will help re-balance the ecology that was damaged by the introduction of invasive predators, Faulkner said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Thus outperforming the New Jersey Devils in the playoffs. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2020-10-07 15:45 |
| #3 I seen dis movie! The newly-released devils wander into a toxic waste dump and mutate into horrific flesh-hungry monsters. Good times! An excellent point about what the new apex predators are going to eat. I suspect it will be endangered birds. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2020-10-07 12:39 |
| #2 What is the apex predator supposed to eat in order to restore the ecosystem(s)? Rabbits would be a good start. But if wild dogs--feral for tens of thousands of years--can drive out, out-eat, and kill the devil, why do they need the devils? And if wild dogs--mammals are generally smarter than marsupials--can't get a handle on the rabbits, why this? Nope. We'll see the devils as protected critters who eat your dachshund when it goes out to pee. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2020-10-07 07:50 |
| #1 The first thing they did was go after wabbits. |
| Posted by: Chesing Slavinter3713 2020-10-07 02:40 |