Tasmanian devils are typically associated with their namesake island of Tasmania, but they have recently been reintroduced to mainland Australia for the first time. Three thousand years ago the animal died out on the mainland due to the arrival of dingoes, but now they’re being released into a 988-acre wildlife sanctuary north of Sydney.
Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark, said, “In 100 years, we are going to be looking back at this day as the day that set in motion the ecological restoration of an entire country. Not only is this the reintroduction of one of Australia’s beloved animals, but of an animal that will engineer the entire environment around it, restoring and rebalancing our forest ecology after centuries of devastation from introduced foxes and cats and other invasive predators.”
