A missing Tasmanian devil that has gained national attention in Australia has been found alive after weeks on the loose. Mary, the 2-year-old marsupial, was tracked down in Gold Coast bushland after surviving far longer than many had expected.
What happened?
According to 7 News, Mary's keepers at Paradise Country realized she was missing in early June, after CCTV footage appeared to show her moving through the park around 4 a.m. The outlet noted that she was eventually found two weeks later at night in dense bushland less than 1.2 miles from where she escaped.
Keepers said, as reported by the outlet, that the endangered animal escaped quarantine by making what they described as an "abnormally large leap" over the 4.6-foot barrier around her enclosure. Al Nucci, a University of Queensland adjunct associate professor of environmental science who helped advise the search, said that kind of escape is highly unusual.
"Tassie Devils escaping is a rare event. I can count them on one hand over the last 30 years," Nucci said to 7 News.
The outlet noted that teams used drone tracking, thermal imaging, field searches, humane traps, and modeling to narrow down where Mary may have gone. She had been brought to the park for conservation work involving the endangered species, which is native to Tasmania and isn't found in the wild on mainland Australia.
When they finally located her, Paradise Country said in a statement cited by 7 News: "Upon finding her, Mary was in an unstable condition, and the team assessed and determined she required veterinary care and rushed her to a specialist veterinary hospital where they were able to stabilise her condition."
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Why does it matter?
"The two key threats for her while she was out in the wild would have been car strike and dog attack," Nucci told the outlet.
Captive breeding and managed care can play an important role in protecting endangered species, but her escape also left her exposed to serious threats beyond protected settings.
Paradise Country said she is stable and remains under specialist veterinary care while additional diagnostic testing is carried out.
Nucci told 7 News that Mary's time away from captivity likely took a major toll.
"In a captive environment, Mary gets treated like a princess," he said. "So she would get the best quality food, the best care and everything. Then going to nothing is a complete two different ordeals."
"She's only two years old. Pretty cheeky for that age, isn't it?" Nucci said. "It just shows you how tenacious Tassie devils really are, that they can survive like that for so long."
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