Flaviemys purvisi
Very Well-Known Member
ABC Radio Hobart
By Georgie Burgess
15 June, 2018.
PHOTO: A Tasmanian devil chewed its way through this cage. (Supplied: Fran Trenery)
A Tasmanian devil has left behind the mangled evidence of its powerful bite after escaping from a cage on a property south of Hobart.
Kettering local Fran Trenery had been using the metal trap to catch and rehome feral cats, but ended up, briefly, with the wrong species of prisoner.
Ms Trenery's photo of the twisted remains of the cage has since been shared across the globe since she posted it to Facebook earlier this week.
"We'd found a lot of feral cats turning up and congregating around our house, so we started trapping them," Ms Trenery told Helen Shield on ABC Hobart.
PHOTO: Sir David Attenborough says the Tasmanian devil's mating process is complex.(Supplied: Max Moller, Black Devil Productions)
"We found a closed trap that had been absolutely torn apart and a few little tufts of black hair.
"I hadn't really expected they could chew their way through the cage.
"The cage is a write-off."
Some comments on the photo were of concern for the devil's welfare, but Ms Trenery reassured commenters that she did not believe the animal was harmed.
Of all carnivores, Tasmanian devils have the most powerful bite relative to body size, and are capable of opening their jaws to an 80-degree angle, allowing them to build up tremendous force.
Devil-proof cages trialled
Feral cats are a big problem in Tasmania and since the devils have been plagued with facial tumour disease the cat population has become even larger.
While traps are necessary to manage the feral cats, they can also lure devils and other marsupials.
The Upper Meander Catchment Land Care Group has been trialling devil-proof cages.
PHOTO: The Upper Meander Catchment Landcare Group is trialling devil-proof cages to trap feral cats. (Supplied: Kevin Knowles)
The group's leader, Kevin Knowles, said the cages were a world-first Tasmanian invention.
"They are lifted off the ground so devils won't get in them," he said.
"And you can ring the trap up through a phone to see if it's been set off.
"It's a big labour-saving device when you're trapping feral animals, [because] you don't have to check the traps every day — you can give them a ring."
A feral cat density study conducted in 2015 found 10 to 12 cats per square kilometre.
"We've only got a very small devil population left up here, but they are surviving in low numbers," Mr Knowles said.
