The Ark has just experienced its third successful breeding season and the news coincides with the opening of a brand new tourism facility at the Devil Ark site.
The Devil Ark Centre houses state-of-the-art interpretative material, including video presentations, a devil sound machine, which plays the screeching sound of a Tasmanian devil and devil skulls displayed to highlight that, for their size, the Tasmanian devil has the strongest jaw strength of any animal on Earth today.
The opening of the Devil Ark Centre also launches Devils in the Wild Tour, which will run each year from October – April. The very first Devils in the Wild Tour will run at Devil Ark from 10am on Saturday 7 December. The tour is fully escorted and runs for 2.5 hours. It features a tour of the Centre and the informational displays and includes a screening of the Devil Ark Story short documentary that recently aired on Channel 9 and NBN nationally.
The tour will then take in some devil enrichment; a special form of feeding which encourages wild behaviour, interaction with joeys born at Devil Ark earlier this year and a rare chance to become immersed in the devil’s natural habitat by entering huge free range enclosures to witness wild devils in truly wild conditions. The tour ends back at the Devil Ark Centre where there’s the opportunity for Q&A with a Tassie devil expert.
This amazing experience is now available at Devil Ark – home to almost 200 devils and breeding an insurance population is recognised as the greatest hope of saving the endangered Tasmanian devil.
The species is under attack from Devil Facial Tumour Disease and in some parts of Tasmania, the population has plummeted to less than 10%. Devil Ark is breeding disease free devils for repopulation into Tasmania should the devil become extinct in the wild.
The development of the Devil Ark Interpretive Centre was made possible with support from the New South Wales Government and its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW through the 2011/12 Regional Tourism Product Development Program.
For further information, please visit: www.devilark.com.au
Photo L to R: Michael Johnsen – Mayor of Scone, Andrew Pottage – Devil Ark Supervisor with 'Topsy' the Tasmanian Devil, John Weigel – Devil Ark Founder, Dean Reid – Devil Ark Supervisor and Kara Mitchell – Devil’s Advocate.
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