Park welcomes devilish duo

STAFF and visitors at the Ballarat Wildlife Park have welcomed two new Tasmanian Devils, Arborio and Bomba, from the Healesville Sanctuary.

Visitors can see at least one of the new two-year-old Tasmanian Devils each day.

“They are named after the rice because when devils are born, they are the size of a grain of rice,” head of small carnivores Emma McKenzie said.

“They’ve been absolutely lovely.”

The move is part of the park’s commitment to conservation of critically endangered species, with a contagious facial tumour disease wiping out up to 90 per cent of the wild Tasmanian Devil population.

“The Tassie Devils are part of a program which holds an insurance population,” Ms McKenzie said.

“Because of devil facial tumour disease in Tasmania, it’s important to have an insurance population with strong genetics in zoos and wildlife parks.

“Zoos and wildlife parks hold a really strong place in trying to fight extinction in having that back-up.”

The Ballarat Wildlife Park is the first privately-owned park on mainland Australia to successfully breed the animals.

The Ballarat Wildlife Park currently has four male Tasmanian Devils.

“We do have four devils, and they are all males, so we are not breeding at the moment,” Ms McKenzie said.

“Being part of the breeding program, you’re not always breeding but it’s really important those devils have somewhere to go and somewhere to call home and they are important as an ambassador animal.”