Environment First Tasmanian Devils born in the wild of Australia mainland in 3,000 years
Tasmanian Devils have been born in the wild of Australia's mainland for the first time in more than 3,000 years, a conservation group said, with seven newborns raising hopes the endangered animals can sustain a new breeding population.
The world's largest surviving marsupial carnivore, Tasmanian Devils were wiped out on the mainland after being hunted by dingoes, a type of wild dog, and have been confined to the island state of Tasmania ever since.
Numbers there too have dropped since the 1990s due to a facial tumour disease and there are believed to be fewer than 25,000 left in the wild.
"There is so much at stake here. We've done everything we can, but if the Devils don't breed, its all over," Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark conservation group, told Reuters.
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.
