Carnivorous Nights_ On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger - Margaret Mittelbach [105]
“Androo is amazing with animals,” Chris said. “He shifted the focus from display to animal rehabilitation, captive breeding, and research.” For example, all the wombats in the park had been orphaned, most pulled from their dead mothers' pouches on the side of the road. They were being hand-raised and ultimately would be released into the wild. “Some wombats quite literally release themselves when they're ready, digging themselves under the fence and ranging through the eighteen hectares. From the eighteen hectares, they range into the surrounding forest. It's a soft release program.”
In addition to rescuing animals, Trowunna bred them—quolls, devils, and many smaller marsupials—and released the offspring into the wild. With so many threats to Tasmania's wildlife—the fox invasion, speeding cars, animals being shot and poisoned as pests, the lethal disease racing through the devil population, the chopping of Tasmania's forests— captive breeding was now more important than ever in the fight to save species.
“As an example, we've captively bred bettongs for six or seven years now. The bettong's a small macropod that weighs about two kilos. On the mainland, it's called the Eastern bettong, but now unfortunately a lot of people are referring to it as the Tasmanian bettong. Tasmania is the only place it still exists due to the fox. With the foxes in Tasmania now …Well, we're stepping up our breeding program.” As if to punctuate Chris's remarks, a devil gave off a guttural shriek.
We thought about the Tasmanian tiger. Dozens, possibly hundreds, had been kept in zoos. But they had never been bred in captivity. Chris and his boss Androo were not going to let that happen with the native animals in their care. They didn't want any more animals to disappear into the Styx.
We looked at the four young devils. Two were walking about, sniffing at everything in their path. They looked perky and alert. A big sign behind them warned, “Devils May Bite.”
“How did you get to be so comfortable with devils?” we asked.
“This isn't a vicious animal,” Chris said. “Their jaws are massively powerful, but devils are actually very timid and shy. All my practical handling experience has been learned off Androo. He's taught me the safe way to handle them and be confident with them.” Certainly, he was confident enough to give a devil a friendly pat.
Unfortunately, Chris told us, Androo wasn't around. But we could find his partner, Darlene Mansell, in the café next to the gift shop.
Darlene was having coffee and chatting with some visitors. We introduced ourselves and explained we were doing a project on Tasmanian wildlife. “Oh well, you must meet Androo,” she said. “The wealth of information he has, it's really important to hear. I won't let you leave the island without speaking to him.” She said we should come back in the morning.
“What do you do here?” Alexis asked.
“Presently I'm running the café. But I've been mucking around with Androo up here for about twelve years. We have a ten-year-old son, Rulla, which is the totem of the owl. This place was formerly called the Tasmanian Wildlife Park. Now it's Trowunna, which is actually the aboriginal word for Tasmania. I'm a Tasmanian aboriginal woman.”
We found ourselves looking at Darlene more closely. She was attractive, her hair chestnut brown and wavy, her nose broad and strong, her skin tan. We realized we were staring and immediately felt self-conscious. It was an odd feeling meeting an aboriginal person from Tasmania. According to a lot of history books, they were all supposed