Tasmanian devils are back in the Australian mainland 

Tasmanian devils have been born in the wild on Australia's mainland 3,000 years after the marsupials disappeared from the continent, conservation groups said Tuesday, raising hopes that a major rewilding effort could succeed.

Aussie Ark and a coalition of other conservation groups revealed that seven of the carnivorous mammals were born inside a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) sanctuary at Barrington Tops, north of Sydney.

The news came less than a year after 26 adult Tasmanian devils were released in the sprawling sanctuary, which is fenced off to protect them from threats including feral pests, noxious weeds and cars.

At the time, conservationists described it as a "historic" project akin to the successful return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the United States in the 1990s.

"Once (the devils) were back in the wild, it was up to them, which was nerve wracking," said Aussie Ark president Tim Faulkner.

"We had been watching them from afar until it was time to step in and confirm the birth of our first wild joeys (babies). And what a moment it was."

Rangers inspected the females' pouches and found the joeys in "perfect health", the organisation said, with additional health checks planned in the coming weeks.

Tasmanian devils, which weigh up to 8 kilograms (18 pounds) and have a black or brown coat, prey on other native animals or scavenge carcasses but are typically not dangerous to humans.

Packs of dingoes are believed to have wiped out Tasmanian devils on the mainland 3,000 years ago.

Aussie Ark President Tim Faulkner said waiting to see if the released adult devils thrived in the wild was "nerve wracking"

It is estimated that fewer than 25,000 Tasmanian devils still live in the wild.

Packs of dingoes are believed to have wiped out Tasmanian devils on the mainland 3,000 years ago.

Aussie Ark President Tim Faulkner said waiting to see if the released adult devils thrived in the wild was "nerve wracking"

On Australia's mainland, they are believed to have been wiped out by packs of dingoes—wild dogs native to the vast continent—an estimated 3,000 years ago.

Known for their extremely loud growl, powerful jaws and ferocity when confronting rivals over food or mates, devils are classified as endangered after a contagious facial tumour disease ravaged the remaining population on the Australian island state of Tasmania.

It is estimated that fewer than 25,000 Tasmanian devils still live in the wild, down from as many as 150,000 before the mysterious, fatal disease first struck in the mid-1990s.

Don Church, president of Re:wild, said the birth of the joeys was "one of the most tangible signs" the reintroduction project on the mainland was working.

"This doesn't just bode well for this endangered species, but also for the many other endangered species that can be saved if we rewild Australia, the country with the world's worst mammal extinction rate," he said.

Aussie Ark plans to release more Tasmanian devils into the sanctuary in the coming years along with quolls, bandicoots and rock wallabies, before eventually introducing the animals to unfenced areas where they will contend with a greater number of threats.

The roots of Australian marsupials are thought to trace back tens of millions of years to when much of the current Southern Hemisphere was part of the supercontinent of Gondwana; marsupials are believed to have originated in what is now South America and migrated across Antarctica, which had a temperate climate at the time.[16] As soil degradation took hold, it is believed that the marsupials adapted to the more basic flora of Australia.[16] According to Pemberton, the possible ancestors of the devil may have needed to climb trees to acquire food, leading to a growth in size and the hopping gait of many marsupials. He speculated that these adaptations may have caused the contemporary devil's peculiar gait.[17] The specific lineage of the Tasmanian devil is theorised to have emerged during the Miocene, molecular evidence suggesting a split from the ancestors of quolls between 10 and 15 million years ago,[18] when severe climate change came to bear in Australia, transforming the climate from warm and moist to an arid, dry ice age, resulting in mass extinctions.[17] As most of their prey died of the cold, only a few carnivores survived, including the ancestors of the quoll and thylacine. It is speculated that the devil lineage may have arisen at this time to fill a niche in the ecosystem, as a scavenger that disposed of carrion left behind by the selective-eating thylacine.[17] The extinct Glaucodon ballaratensis of the Pliocene age has been dubbed an intermediate species between the quoll and devil.[19]