Researchers find healthy Tasmanian devils

hobart - Australian researchers have found, in exceptional cases, a group of healthy Tasmanian devils. The healthy animals offer new hope that the endangered species can be saved.

In the last two decades the population has decreased by about 80 percent. The Tasmanian devil is plagued by a deadly cancer in the face. The disease is transmitted when they bite or mate.

A special program has been set up to save the carnivorous marsupial that is only found on the Australian island of Tasmania. After eight days in the wilderness in the southwest of Tasmania, researchers found fourteen who do not carry the disease.

'Finding devils with new genetic diversity offers us opportunities,' the program coordinator told Australian broadcaster ABC. He called the find 'very startling. '

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