THE State Government is scrambling to stop wildlife parks selling endangered Tasmanian devils to interstate parks.
It gave East Coast Natureworld owner Bruce Englefield an export licence this month to send four devils to the Hunter Valley Zoo in NSW and Peel Zoo near Perth.
He has another three devils in quarantine at his park that are earmarked for Phillip Island zoo in Victoria.
The devils are not part of the Government’s official insurance population drawn from the wild and housed in zoos around the country.
The gruesome devil facial tumour disease has wiped out 80 per cent of the devil population and the insurance population could be the only thing standing between the species and extinction.
Although all devils in wildlife parks are technically owned by the State Government, Mr Englefield admits charging a “management fee” of several thousand dollars for each devil.
“I can’t charge for the animal but I can charge for the management, the vet bills, the cages,” he said.
Mr Englefield said he had lost money on the deals but gained “internal warmth” thinking his contribution could help save the species.
But the exportation of devils has outraged the Zoo and Aquarium Association, which is a member of the Tasmanian Government’s official Save the Devil Program and represents zoos that have invested millions of their own money in the insurance population, which is largely not on public display.
ZAA executive director Martin Phillips said the peak body had raised “strong concerns” with the State Government and the devils were unlikely to ever become part of the insurance population.
“It would appear a private institution in Tasmania has provided them to a private institution in Western Australia for public display. I can’t ascertain any other benefit,” he said.
Mr Phillips said the insurance population was carefully managed to breed animals with genetic diversity, because in the wild devils had inbred, making them more susceptible to the contagious cancer.
“It has to be done through scientific analysis, not just random allocation of animals, which is what has happened here,” he said.
“We don’t want to see a captive population growing outside the program. It’s not helping anyone.”
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