Tasmanian devils return to Australian wild after 3,000 years

The project, akin to move to return wolves to Yellowstone National Park, will create an ‘insurance population’ against face-tumor disease.

Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild on Australia’s mainland 3,000 years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists described Monday as a “historic” step.

Aussie Ark, along with a coalition of other conservation groups, revealed on Monday that they had released 26 of the carnivorous mammals into a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) sanctuary at Barrington Tops, about 3.5 hours north of Sydney.