A search involving tracker dogs and thermal imaging drones is underway in Queensland, Australia, after a Tasmanian devil escaped from a wildlife park.
The Paradise Country park in Oxenford said the 2-year-old Tasmanian devil, named Mary, escaped from her enclosure on Tuesday morning. Mary arrived at the facility in May.
Lauren Mousley, the park’s curator of native and exotic wildlife, said Mary’s means of escape from her quarantine enclosure are “a bit of mystery,” but zookeepers have one theory.
“At the moment we do think that an abnormally large leap has happened and that’s how she’s breached out of her quarantine area,” Mousley said in a video posted to the park’s Facebook page.
The search for Mary entered a second day Wednesday, as sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones were brought in to help search the area surrounding the park.
Al Mucci, a University of Queensland adjunct professor and captive animal management expert, said the marsupial is likely staying close to the facility.
“There is a lot of natural bush land area surrounding Paradise Country, so she could move up to a kilometre or so,” Mucci told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “She’s probably a little bit scared because it’s all new and maybe [she] found a little hidey spot near a log or a dog kennel even.”
Tasmanian devils no longer live in the wild on the Australian mainland, and fewer than 25,000 remain in the wild in Tasmania.
