It’s an exciting time at Devil
Ark. We’re just about to start biopsing
our 40 joeys that were born last year. This
reveals who their parents are, as they breed in massive free range enclosues
that contain up to 12 devs, so this procedure is necessary to determine
paternity. A small skin scrapping is taken from the little one’s ear and is
sent to our friends at Sydney University for testing.
In readiness for breeding we’re
already seeing females showing signs of nesting and this includes grabbing
tusks of grass to take back to their dens to build comfy nests. We can see trails of this tussock leading
right into their dens, so its easy to work out which dens have female
inhabitation.
The brumbies are prolific up this
way and the other day I woke up to find a herd of wild brumbies in my very own
backyard! This is the closest I’ve ever
got to them and they are truly beautiful, wild animals.
Chicko and Cheech are growing
bigger by the day and have even hit the 2kg mark. I’ve been handraising these littles guys for
three months now and I sure have become attached to them. I’ll only have them for a couple of months
more and they’ll then go into the crèche yards to socialise with the other
joeys their own age. It wont be long
before they’re old enough to breed and will make baby devils of their own.
 |
| Chicko and Cheech |
We’ve had bushfires in the area
but thankfully no close calls. It’s
been hot up at the Ark and the devils burrow way underground to keep cool. This is how they’d stay safe in a bushfire
too. Devs are actually pretty hardy in
bushfires, as they can burrow to keep safe - Adrian Devil Ark keeper
