Ecologists from University of NSW say reintroducing devils to Australian mainland after 3,000-year absence would be huge boon for native wildlife

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Reintroducing Tasmanian devils to the Australian mainland after a 3,000-year absence would drastically improve the fortunes of native wildlife by curbing the spread of feral cats and foxes, research has found.



Ecologists from the University of New South Wales assessed the likely impact of reintroducing Tasmanian devils to forests in south-eastern NSW and found they would assume the mantle of top predator, deterring cats and foxes.

This would benefit scores of smaller animals, such as bandicoots and potoroos, which are being killed at a rapid rate by feral predators.

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Tasmanian devils disappeared from the Australian mainland about 3,000 years ago, probably as a result of conflict with the dingo.

UNSW scientists say all the evidence suggests that Tasmanian devils and dingoes cannot co-exist, but introducing devils to non-dingo areas would benefit native fauna.

Humans have wiped out dingoes across most of Victoria and NSW, mostly to protect livestock, leaving foxes and cats to become primary predators.

This has had a disastrous impact on Australia’s native wildlife; 29 mammals have become extinct over the past 200 years. About 20 of these have been blamed directly on feral cats, prompting a government effort to kill two million of them by 2020.

Simulations constructed by UNSW on what could happen if Tasmanian devils were introduced showed that foxes and cats declined, as did grazing herbivores such as wallabies. The vegetation eaten by wallabies removes spots for small mammals, such as bandicoots, to hide.

Prof Mike Letnic, co-author of the study, said modelling showed a trial reintroduction of devils should be attempted.

“We should try a release in a controlled fenced area to start with,” he said. “But we need to do something bold. We keep hearing about the devastating impact of cats and foxes and we’re not succeeding in ameliorating those impacts.

“Tasmania is a great case study. Foxes haven’t established there despite several attempts, and cats aren’t rampant either – and that’s because of the devil. The devil is suppressing their numbers.”

Letnic said the slopes of the Great Dividing Range were ideal because of their suitable climate, lack of dingoes and high fox numbers.

“We’d likely see devils assume the role of top predator, leading to an increase in medium-sized mammals,” he said. “If you see how alive Tasmania is, how amazing that is, it would be great if we could emulate that elsewhere in Australia.”

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Conservationists are increasingly looking at options to “rewild” parts of Australia with native predators to arrest the country’s precipitous decline in wildlife. The process of reintroducing long-lost species has gathered pace in Europe and the US, where animals such as wolves, lynx and beavers have been brought back to areas where they had previously been driven out.

In January, a group of conservationists called for Australia’s 5,500km “dingo fence” to be altered to allow dingoes into a NSW national park to test whether they could help deter feral pests.

Letnic said, “The whole idea of rewilding is reconstructing ecosystems we had 200 years ago, or in this case 3,000 years ago.

“All animals and plants fulfil a role in the ecosystem and if you lose an influential species you have these cascading effects. Losing a keystone predator species can cause an unravelling of the ecosystem.”

Gregory Andrews, the Australian government’s threatened species commissioner, said: “Native predator reintroduction is identified as a science-based means of recovering mammals and birds in Australia’s threatened species strategy.

“Community agreement and support, especially in Tasmania, would be essential before any scientifically-based reintroductions of Tasmanian devils to the mainland.”

