Adorable Tasmanian devils receive their first health checks

By Safia Azizi via SWNS

These little devils - Tasmanian devil joeys, that is - have just passed their first health checks with flying colors.

The cute marsupials are actually quite docile - unlike their cartoon character Taz - and cannot be checked until they leave their mother's pouch after four months.

It is only when they climb up onto their mother's backs - the joeys are fully weaned at six months - that they can be sexed and health checked.

The Tasmanian devil audit includes assessments before moving them into different enclosures at Aussie Ark, New South Wales, Australia, in preparation for the 2023 breeding season.

Aussie Ark Curator Kelly Davis said: “In catching our adults in order to move them around, it’s also our first chance to capture and check the juveniles born in 2022.

“This includes Sandy or Sandra D - in honor of the late Olivia Newton John’s character in the feature film 'Grease’ - who was part of that 2022 cohort.”

At their first health check, the joeys are microchipped, sexed, named and photographed. They also undergo genetic testing to determine their parentage.

Kelly Davis said: “Because they are independent from mom when we conduct these health checks, we don’t know who their mother is. We certainly don’t know who their dad is.

“So we take a small tissue biopsy from one of their ears, which is sent to a genetic testing facility.

"They have all of the data for our mums and dads on file, so in a couple of months they can tell us who each joey belongs to.”

A video shared by Aussie Ark shows trap-camera footage of the joeys and their mothers captured over the course of the season.

The newly processed joeys will be housed in an “intensive enclosure” until they settle into a cohesive group, the park said.

After that, they will be sent to one of the park’s larger managed environmental enclosures.

Aussie Ark was originally known as Devil Ark, and its mission was to breed Tasmanian devils in order to save the species from devil facial tumor disease.

The park now also works to preserve other threatened Australian species.