After more than 10 years of "blood, sweat and tears", a mainland Tasmanian devil breeding program has produced its 500th joey.
Key points:
- Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary is celebrating the birth of its 500th Tasmanian devil
- The park received its first cohort of 44 disease-free devils from Tasmania during 2011
- It is a significant milestone to ensure the survival of the endangered species
The joey was discovered and counted recently during a regular pouch inspection at Aussie Ark's Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary, on the lower Mid North Coast of New South Wales.
Operations manager at Aussie Ark and the Australian Reptile Park Billy Collett described it as an "absolute milestone" for the facility's Tasmanian devil breeding and rewilding program.
"To get 500 joeys since the beginning is just an absolute success story, but it is not the end of the road,' he said.
The joey has been named Milo the Milestone Devil and is already about four months old.
Launched in 2011
The program began in 2011 when the facility received its first cohort of 44 disease-free devils from Tasmania.
It is now the biggest Tasmanian devil breeding program on mainland Australia and has been described as an insurance population for the species.
"We want to get to 1,000, 2,000. They're the sort of numbers we want to get to," Mr Collett said.
"Every single one of them are ambassadors for their species, so it's absolutely critical."
Mr Collett said the team was elated to have hit the significant milestone.
"It was more like what you'd experience at a 21st birthday, or 30th or 40th … it literally feels like we're getting somewhere and we're actually saving the species," he said.
A critical insurance population
More than 90 per cent of Australia's wild population has been wiped out by the highly contagious and fatal devil facial tumour disease.
Tasmanian devils also face other threats such as dog attacks, poisoning, and being hit by cars.
"They're still holding on but they're not recovering," Mr Collett said.
"Five hundred devils is absolutely critical because there's every chance that in the wild they will still go extinct".
Breeding success
The program's 500th joey was born in its free range sanctuary.
"We've got a 400-hectare, predator-proof fence, free range sanctuary with just native animals," Mr Collett said.
"It's got no foxes or cats, deer or pigs in there, and that's where it was born.
"It just goes to show that everything we're doing is right and it's working."
Mr Collett said the past few breeding seasons had yielded a lot of joeys and believes the Barrington Tops location is an ideal spot for them to grow up, despite being far from the marsupial's natural Tasmanian habitat.
"[Barrington Tops] are so similar. We're 1,500 metres above sea level. It's that nice thick, dense, high altitude forest," he said.
"We've had other hot dry years come through … and the devils did fine up there."