Our adorable Tasmanian Devil joeys have been given a clean bill of health!
The five-month-old babies had their first visit with the vet today at Monarto Zoo.
While mum Mylo was busy with a delicious snack, her three little boys were weighed, microchipped and had their teeth, digits and general health checked.
The joeys weighed in at a tiny 432g, 458g and 450g, and Monarto Zoo keeper Simon Dower said the boys, born to Mylo and dad Tupac, passed the check with flying colours!
“These joeys are about five months old now, and this is the first time we’ve been able to get our hands on them to see they’re healthy,” Simon said.
“They started as the size of a grain of rice and stay in mum’s pouch until they’re about four months. Over the last couple weeks we’ve been seeing them out of the den on mums back.
“Now they’ve all been given a 100% health tick, it’s a quick moving process to get them done without too much stress, but they all look perfect to me.”
The second litter, two girls and one boy, were born to Raven and CJ and weighed in at 538g, 548g and 562g. These cuties were also given a clean bill of health!
These six new joeys are part of the nation-wide breeding program working to maintain the Tasmanian Devil insurance population.
Sadly, Tasmanian Devil numbers have plummeted over the past 22 years due to the aggressive Devil Facial Tumour Disease which has devastated wild populations.
Zoos SA works with many partner organisations across Australasia in a collaborative captive breeding and release program to safeguard this species from extinction.
“Many of the devils that are bred here will go back into the wild as part of the recovery plan, while others will remain in captivity to continue breeding and play an ambassador role for their species,” Simon said.
“Seeing the end result where animals are released and wild populations become stronger is a huge reward for us.
‘We have a bit of a saying around here that is ‘our quality of work is our animal’ quality of life’, we we put our best efforts forward to make sure the outcomes are best for all animals, both in captivity and in the wild.”
