Max beats the axe

By Kath Gannaway
TASSIE Devil Max doesn’t know it but he is a vital cog in a grand plan to save his species.
The one-year-old Max is one of 24 joeys, 15 male and nine female, bred at Healesville Sanctuary last year as part of the Save the Tasmanian Devil program.
The species is critically endangered as a result of Devil Facial Tumour Disease which has decimated wild populations in Tasmania.
The joeys had their first-ever vet checks by the sanctuary’s specialist veterinary team in December, all 24 coming away with a clean bill of health.
The examinations which included blood samples and inserting micro-chip identification were done under anaesthetic – they may only be little devils at this age, but they can still be feisty and have a lethal mouthful of sharp teeth!
Healesville Sanctuary is one of 18 zoos now breeding Tasmanian Devils in captivity in the hope of saving the critically endangered animal from becoming extinct in the wild.
The sanctuary bred 24 out of the 41 devils born into the breeding program last year.
Devil keeper Tiffany Eastley said the sanctuary’s breeding stock were caught before they were exposed to the tumour and that the sanctuary was well represented within the wider insurance program.
Ms Eastley said ultimately devils would be reintroduced into four secure free-range enclosures, mostly on the east coast of Tasmania, to re-build the population and provide the genetic diversity needed for their survival.
“We are now looking at targeting specific genetics from the wild populations and aim to have anything up to 1500 in the insurance population,” she said.
Max still has time to just be a little devil, but there are certainly great expectations of him, and his peers, in the future.