Tasmanian devils return to Australian wild after 3,000 years

[Potoooooooo]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tasmanian-devils-reintroduced-australian-wild-095117117.html

Tasmanian devils have been reintroduced into the wild in mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years.

Conservation groups released 26 of the mammals into a large sanctuary in Barrington Tops, north of Sydney.

It's thought that packs of dingoes helped eradicate them on the mainland.

There are still some on the island state of Tasmania but their numbers have dwindled over the past two decades.

 

[DBT]

I hope they do well in their new home.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

The ones in Tassie are dying of a nasty form of of contagious jaw cancer. Releasing them on the mainland protects the healthy ones.

That said, I live on the bit of the mainland directly opposite Tassie and as recently as 20 years ago there were a few individuals around here.

 

[Valjean]

So what are we going to do about the dingoes? If they wiped out the devils once, aren't they likely to do it again?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

So what are we going to do about the dingoes? If they wiped out the devils once, aren't they likely to do it again?

Did they really go extinct because of dingoes or because of loss of habitat? Human encroachment would seem to have been the real culprit, as it is in nearly every other case. Of course, introduction of dingoes is actually human encroachment when you think about it.

The article I read said their last numbers disappeared between 500 and 5000 years ago.

Tasmanian devils released into sanctuary north of Sydney in step towards 'rewilding'