500th Birth in a Dozen Years: a Milestone for the Tasmanian Devil

A decade after launching a Tasmanian devil breeding and rewilding program in Australia, a 500^th joey was born, reaching an absolute milestone for the survival of the endangered iconic marsupial.

“To get 500 joeys since the beginning is just an absolute success story, but it is not the end of the road,” explains Billy Collett, Operations manager at Aussie Ark and the Australian Reptile Park. “We want to get to 1,000, 2,000. They’re the sort of numbers we want to get to. Every one of them is an ambassador for their species, so it’s absolutely critical.”

During a pouch inspection at Aussie Ark’s Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary located in the lower Mid-North Coast of New South Wales, the four-month-old joey named Milo the Milestone Devil was discovered. It is the 500^th to be born as part of the Tasmanian devil breeding and breeding program. In 2011, the free-range sanctuary received 44 disease-free devils from Tasmania, thus launching mainland Australia’s biggest Tasmanian devil breeding program. Within the 400-hectare and predator-proof-fenced sanctuary, there are only native animals. The breeding program is an insurance population for the species that is “still holding on but […] not recovering” and cannot survive in the wild. The birth of the 500^th joey “goes to show that everything we’re doing is right and it’s working.”