By enabling the TLC to purchase 60 wildlife cameras, the Tasmanian Devil Research Advisory Committee grant will allow the TLC to work with communities to collect long-term ecological data-sets that are a critical for effective conservation and natural resource management and research.
The project will engage landholders across Tasmania in a citizen-science monitoring project, and establish annual monitoring of Tasmanian devils at 120 private protected areas across the state.
Once regarded as a savage predator with few redeeming features, Australia’s largest carnivore has had its image transformed courtesy of publicity surrounding the devastating Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease.
Having suffered an 80% decline in population numbers because of the disease, the species is now listed as endangered, and is more widely acknowledged as an integral part Tasmania’s ecological and cultural landscape.