A homeowner in Queensland checked a security camera notification expecting to see a neighborhood cat and instead found a missing Tasmanian devil wandering across her driveway.
UPI reported that the sighting has been drawing attention online because Mary the Tasmanian devil, after escaping from a nearby wildlife park, appeared in a suburban neighborhood more than a mile away.
What happened?
After escaping Paradise Country, a wildlife park in the Oxenford suburb of Gold Coast, last Tuesday morning, Mary resurfaced over the weekend when resident Caitlyn Wis' home security camera picked up the nocturnal visitor.
The video shows a small dark animal wandering through Wis' driveway at night. Recalling the alert, Wis said, "I got a notification on my security camera and checked the footage, I thought it was a cat."
Paradise Country later identified the animal in the clip as Mary, not a cat. The Tasmanian devil had arrived at the park in May and escaped while still in quarantine.
Why does it matter?
Tasmanian devils are no longer found in the wild on Australia's mainland, and fewer than 25,000 remain in the wild in Tasmania.
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Before appearing on the security footage, Mary had been kept in a human-managed quarantine space, then moved through a neighborhood lined with roads, homes, and backyards.
After confirming that Mary was the animal in the driveway footage, Paradise Country said it was stepping up efforts to find her.
Scent detection dogs, drones, and a team of wildlife officials are continuing the search for this missing animal.
"Keeping our fingers crossed that Mary is home safe soon," one person commented.
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