New Zealand's Auckland Zoo has become the latest international partner of an initiative to help raise awareness of the Tasmanian devil and the State and Federal Government program to protect it from the facial tumour disease.
Four Tasmanian devils (one female and three males) were transferred from Victoria's Healesville Sanctuary just before Easter, where they have been housed as part of the Save The Tasmanian Devil Program's Insurance Population.
The Ambassador Devil initiative aims to raise international awareness of the species and the effort that is underway in Tasmania and other parts of Australia to protect the Tasmanian devil from the transmissible cancer that is affecting their wild population.
Because of the success the State and Federally funded Save the Tasmanian Devil Program has had in establishing an insurance population of devils, some animals are genetically over represented and are surplus to the breeding program.
They can still play an important role in this program however through the international advocacy role they can have in specially selected overseas zoos and wildlife parks.
The initiative is being trialed over the first 12 months at five international zoos (San Diego Zoo and Albuquerque Zoo in North America, and at Wellington Zoo, Orana Wildlife Sanctuary and Auckland Zoo in New Zealand) and if successful will be expanded to other zoos in North America, Europe and Asia.
The overseas initiative is enabling the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program to gain real support for the devil in a global community which will help to ensure the sustainability of activities designed to meet conservation objectives over the long term.
It has additional cost saving benefits in providing for the alternative placement of these devils which are no longer required for their genetic contribution to the insurance population.
Images available on request
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