"These devils were selected from the wild more than 18 months ago and housed under strict quarantine to form the basis of a genetically diverse captive population,"
said Dr Graeme Gillespie, Director of Wildlife, Conservation and Science at Zoos Victoria.
"The insurance captive breeding program will be conducted in accordance with a Captive Management Plan. Under this plan, it is hoped to breed and manage a sustainable captive population of about 100 devils for at least 10 years.
"This program demonstrates the important role zoos play for threatened species, especially when they work co-operatively with government agencies. It also highlights how critical partnerships are in the protection of species in urgent need," Dr Gillespie said.
Suzuki Australia Pty Ltd has become a corporate sponsor of Zoos Victoria and the principal supporter of the Tasmanian Devil breeding program.
DFTD describes a fatal condition in Tasmanian devils characterised by the appearance of obvious facial cancers. The tumours or cancers are first noticed in and around the mouth as small lesions or lumps. These develop into large tumours around the face and neck and sometimes even in other parts of the body. Adults appear to be most affected by the disease - males the first affected, then females. Badly affected devils may have many cancers throughout the body. As the cancers develop in affected devils, they may become emaciated, particularly if the tumours interfere with teeth and feeding. Many females lose their young. Affected animals appear to die within six months of the lesions first appearing.
In 1996, Tasmanian devils were photographed in the north-east of the State with what appeared to be large facial tumours characteristics consistent with what is now known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease. As at December 2006, the Tasmanian devil disease had spread to 57 separate sites covering 56 per cent of the State. Across Tasmania, there has been a 41 per cent decline in average sightings from 1992-95 to 2002-05. In the north-east region, where signs of the Tasmanian devil disease were first reported, there has been a 90 per cent decline of average spotlighting sightings from 1992-95 to 2002-05. The proportion of animals displaying signs of the disease at any one site has reached up to 83 per cent of trapped adults. For more information on the Tasmanian Devil Breeding Program and Zoos Victoria, go to www.zoo.org.au
Tony Fitzjohn is more aware than most of the dire situation for the Black Rhino. In 30 years he has watched Tanzania's black rhino population nosedive, from more than 10,000 in 1975 to just 30 in the 1990s. Now, with generous support from Suzuki and the Tanzanian government, Fitzjohn has begun to reverse the slide. A breeding program at the Mkomazi game reserve in northern Tanzania that Fitzjohn calls home has begun to kick-start the slow process of returning them to the wild. Handling African animals is what Fitzjohn does best - a skill he learnt from George Adamson, the legendary "lion man" of Africa. It was Born Free, Joy Adamson's story of Elsa the lioness that made George famous. But by the time Fitzjohn arrived on the scene the couple had separated and George was living alone with his lions at Kora, in northern Kenya. The working partnership with Adamson was to last for nearly 18 years. But in 1989 the dream ended when Adamson, aged 83, was murdered by Somali poachers. By then, in any case, the lion program had ended and Fitzjohn was looking for new challenges; and found it in Mkomazi. Mkomazi's 1300 square miles of arid bush is ideal rhino country. In 1951 it held one of the densest black rhino populations in East Africa. Even in the late 60s it still had as many as 250 rhinos, yet somehow it never attracted the financial backing provided for more glamorous wildlife strongholds such as the Serengeti. By the late 1980s, Mkomazi remained largely forgotten. By then it had become badly degraded through poaching, overgrazing, deliberate burning and unregulated trophy-hunting. Its Black Rhinos had been wiped out. Fewer than a dozen elephants survived and the future of the reserve itself hung in the balance. Only since 1988, when the Tanzanian government reassessed its value, has Mkomazi's true importance been recognised. A decision was taken to restore the reserve and save its remaining wildlife. But who could take on such a challenge? The job required someone who was comfortable at the cutting edge of conservation. It needed a man who could handle animals, who was fluent in Swahili, a skilled mechanic who could build roads, fly a plane, strip down an SUV, organise anti-poaching patrols, run a remote bush camp and deal with the endless bureaucracy. On top of that it needed a man who could on one day oversee a breeding program for the mighty Black Rhino, and on the next be boarding a 747 jet and mixing with corporate managers around the world. They found their man in Tony Fitzjohn. For Fitzjohn, the move to Mkomazi was a coming of age, a rite of passage in which he finally cast off his old hell-raising image and emerged from Adamson's giant shadow to make his own mark on the conservation scene. Now in his late 50s, Fitzjohn is still physically fit and mentally tough, despite the serious dents in his body inflicted by a male lion which nearly killed him in 1975. Married and now a father of two, he still maintains the fiery passion required to protect endangered species like the rhino. Fitzjohn has a herd of eight Black Rhinos in his Mkomazi sanctuary, and is confident his breeding program can help sustain the survival of this wildlife icon. Rhino sanctuaries such as that at Mkomazi are essential for the survival of the species. The 30 square mile rhino sanctuary is surrounded by 2.5-metre electrified and alarmed fence and patrolled around the clock by armed guards. It was built over five years at a cost of $500,000.00.