Noah's Ark takes sail
the article i read says the devils have under gone such intensive checks as they are going to the maniland, it was like 47 are going to the mainland parks
i found this, 18 are going to heaslville, and 11 the oz rept. park.
Last-ditch effort to save Tasmanian devils for the wild
December 1, 2006
THE first of a "Noah's Ark" collection of Tasmanian devils leaves today for mainland zoos as the disease devastating the marsupial intensifies.
The 47 healthy young animals will found a captive breeding population as last-ditch insurance against extinction of the species in the wild, where they are succumbing to a form of cancer known as devil facial tumour disease.
More than half of all wild devils have died in recent years from the disease, according to scientists tackling the crisis.
The latest research shows the disease is forcing wild females to breed much younger, reducing these "teenage mothers" to a single litter in life before they die. Previously they would have raised three litters of offspring.
Devil facial tumour disease is a rare transmissible cancer that has no cure. It is believed to be spread through the devils' habit of biting each other, both in quarrels for food and during sex.
Highly contagious but so far confined to devils, it has even appeared in a commercial wildlife park that was thought to have been secure, at Mole Creek in the state's north.
"Most believe there is a possibility that devils could become extinct in Tasmania, which makes this insurance population vital," said Steven Smith, manager of the State Government's devil disease program.
The animals that make up this "insurance population" were caught up to 20 months ago on the island's west and north-west coasts, where the disease is yet to appear. Their transfer was delayed to ensure they were disease-free, and in that time some have had their first litters.
The young migrants to fly out in animal containers today are the first of the breeding stock that will go to four mainland states, including 18 destined for Victoria's Healesville Sanctuary and 11 for the Australian Reptile Park, Gosford, NSW. As these devils breed, more zoos and wildlife parks around the country are expected to join the program.
"Captive breeding programs can be extremely expensive," said Russel Traher, curator of animal management at Healesville. "It demonstrates how a lot of institutions can co-operate to help a species that's in need."
Researchers, including devil specialist Menna Jones, have had to watch catastrophic declines in their study populations.
Dr Jones said that since the first evidence of the disease appeared in a previously strong population on Tasmania's Freycinet Peninsula, nearly 70 per cent had died. Further north on the island's east coast at Mount William National Park, there were perhaps 10 per cent of devils left.
She said there was no sign of any slowdown in the disease, which was forcing some fundamental changes in devils' breeding habits.
Devils normally live for only five or six years, breeding in their middle years. Now, one-year-old females were having litters. "The concern is that most females that are breeding lack experience, and this may reduce the reproductive output too," Dr Jones said.
"Females also normally have a strong preference for older and larger males, and these animals, which have survived through natural selection, are not around any more." Animals that did breed were then among the most susceptible to the disease. "Well over half of females that do breed are not breeding more than once," Dr Jones said.
Controversial plans are being considered to introduce devils to some of Tasmania's offshore islands as more insurance, and work is also under way to see whether a vaccine is feasible.
Initial results show devils' circulatory systems can readily produce antibodies to introduced agents.
WHAT IS KILLING THE DEVILS?
■ Facial tumour disease is a fatal cancer rampant in devils.
■ It is transferred between animals through biting.
■ It appears as lesions, then lumps and large tumours, that prevent feeding.
■ It kills animals within six months of lesions appearing.
■ Facial tumour disease has spread in less than a decade through more than half of Tasmania, leaving only north-west and west coast populations free of disease.
), but the region has a breeding program for Tasmanian Devils, not just any one zoo. All the devils in the mainland zoos, and one or two zoos in Tasmania, are managed jointly, by a studbook keeper based at Healeville Sanctuary, under the auspices of the ASMP (Australasian Species Management Program). 
), i honestly think that should this disease persisit and continue to cause a problem, that we should seriously consider not just holding very large populations of devils in our zoo, but releasing them into secured (and by that i mean fenced off, the way earth sanctuaries, or whatever their name is, does) habitat here in victoria.