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| Jean-Francois DuCroz releasing a devil with GPS collar Photo: Kyler Abernathy, National Geographic |
We who were camping in the Tarkine with the
Bob Brown Foundation over Easter were not the devils, though some in the
resources industry might think so. We had the exciting opportunity to meet up
with Channing Hughes and his team from the University of Sydney, who were
researching the Tassie devil in our area, the Frankland river. As you may know,
this carnivore is under threat from a deadly facial tumour which has been spreading
rapidly throughout the population. Until recently it had not percolated through
to Tasmania’s northwest, but the researchers are now finding some individuals
with these horrible lumps on their faces. However the conservation effort is
taking a hopeful turn.
On the second day several carloads of us
found Channing and team out in the forestry roads, where they were checking
traps. He had just released a devil from a trap which it had been lured into
with a fragrant piece of pademelon. (A pademelon is like a kangaroo but
terrier-sized and very cute.) We did not see the devil but smelled it - the
stink! Channing was engaged in cleaning the trap in preparation for the next
night. He told us that the tumour is very unusual, because it is a cancer that
is transmittable. The devils bite each other on the face, especially in the
mating season, or if they’re scrapping over some carrion. The cancer cells then
carry over and lodge in the competitor’s face. By contrast, when devils are
being handled by people they go into a kind of torpor. They’re so passive that
researchers can open their mouths ( no doubt pegging their noses first) and
fiddle with their teeth. Some of these little guys are fitted with GPS tracking
devices and ‘devilcam’.
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| Myrtle foliage |
We were keen to see a devil for ourselves
so we followed the team around as they checked their traps. That morning there were no more devils.
Channing had told us that a vaccine has been developed for the tumour and it is
working. I was traveling in our guide Jef’s car, and he told us what is
happening on Maria Island, where he works. It is functioning as a grand devil
experiment. They were not an original part of the island fauna, neither were the feral cats. Devils
were introduced to Maria Island, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, with GPS
collars and without. Jef says, “The devils were released on the northern end of
the island and quickly established themselves down to the southern end.” They
have outcompeted the cats who now
reside in extremely steep and rugged areas on the eastern side of the island.
“Gps trackers and remote cameras are evidence of this”. Isn’t this great news? A bushwalker
who’d been on Maria last year, told me of the numbers of devils scavenging
around campsites. There are also eastern quolls on the island, and they form
part of the native predator mix.
But there is a down side for the
island. Two years after the devil
release, penguin numbers plummeted. They are now surviving “on the south end of
the island where steep granite cliffs by the water offer refuge from devils,”
says Jef.
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| wildlife in a myrtle tree |
Channing told us that their program, the
Carnivore Conservancy, is linked with universities both here and overseas, and zoos. There is an international
effort going on. In our region, the sanctuary at Secret Creek near Lithgow is
partnering with the devil breeding program at Barrington Tops. They have just
begun to provide a “retirement package”, two months ago they took charge of two
females who’ve done their breeding duty.
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| Me having quiet time by the Frankland River photo credit: Isabel Mai Owe Young |
By the time you read this, the wedge-tailed eagle breeding
season begins, which means a ban on logging in the Frankland river coupes. The
devils and their dinners have a reprieve until February 10th, 2018.
You can read more about the Carnivore
Conservancy at: www.carnivores.co
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