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ABC News

Largest interstate Tasmanian devil breeding program devastated by NSW floods

Dean Reid So the situation is that we've had our sister organisation, Australian Reptile Park, come up yesterday with boots on the ground to get a lot of this stuff fixed that we need to. Every time we fix one of our sanctuary fences, there's so much water pumping through it, it broke again. So we've had our breach response in traps outside, just building the fence every day. While there's water pumping through it, it's pretty safe to say that no animals got out. We had camera traps on there too, which didn't pick anything up. And now we're just sort of triaging stuff, just making sure all the animals are safe. One of our devil pens was fully flooded, so we were pulling devils out of there the other day and putting them in vet block. So, yeah, but everyone's good so far. Kylie Baxter So the devils are safe, you just had to relocate them through the mud and the rain and these terrible conditions? Dean Reid Yeah, they usually live in little burrows. They dig their own burrows or under logs and stuff like that. Just one yard is in the back corner of the sanctuary where all the breeding animals are. The ones out into the BWS, which is our big sanctuary, we have about 50 devils out there. We've done a check around and they're running around and we put food out and monitored them. So they're all OK. But yeah, we did have to move about 10 devils out of one yard and we'll just have to wait for that flooding to go down in there. Kylie Baxter And do you have to put big gloves on? Because they're not always the friendliest creatures, are they, despite what people think? Dean Reid That's true. No. If you haven't hand raised one, then no, they are a bit aggressive. But the way you handle them is basically tailing them, getting them out very quickly and putting them in traps and then locating them somewhere else. Kylie Baxter I imagine a devil bite would not be a lot of fun. Dean Reid No, it's not a lot of fun. And yeah, we have to go to hospital and get that cleaned out if we get one. I've been working with devils for 14 years now and I've, touch wood, never been bitten by one. Kylie Baxter OK, that is good news. I'm glad about that. So are you preparing for more rain or what's happening as far as the weather event? Dean Reid So I've had about 500 mls all up on the Barrington Tops. It was sunny this morning, but it's come over cloudy and it's raining again. But just it's misty rain. So we've got everything in place at the moment. We've got fences coming in tomorrow. The water levels have dropped in all the creek lines. So we have a big fence coming in tomorrow to fix that section of fence. We went out this morning and double checked it and put some tin around it just so we, you know, just make sure it's extra safe. So we're not getting anything going out and anything coming in. We don't want cats and foxes coming in, obviously. But yeah, at the moment, we're sort of triaging everything. So we've just done a big flood appeal, which are on our socials, if anyone wants to go and have a look. Kylie Baxter Dean, what about the koalas? Is there any issues there or have they just climbed up to higher ground in their trees? Dean Reid Koalas always live high up in the tree. They will come to ground and go to tree to tree, but they sort of hunker down. They're built for this kind of thing. They curl up in a ball. They've got two layers of fur, one thick and one long and one short. And so I was looking at them today. I went and tracked all the koalas and they all look really well and healthy. But with so much rain and we've had so much rain constantly, that's why we got so flooded in the last three months is just constant rain and the water's got nowhere to go. But koalas can get a thing like septicemia if they're not monitored with too much rain, too wet and things like that. But all our koalas look great. Kylie Baxter Fantastic. And any other animals that you have there that you're keeping an eye on? Dean Reid Yeah. So our eastern quoll enclosures, we've got something like 80 quolls. One side of them, unfortunately, is concreted in, not like it's got concrete base around it, but it's dirt. Unfortunately, they all flooded. So we had to pull all the eastern quolls out of that side and re-home them into other areas. So that was, you know, all the quolls were up in their nest box, nice and dry. But obviously it was fully flooded in there. So they have to stay in there. They couldn't get to the ground. So we've moved all those and all our hand-raised animals like Pippidi the palmer, we just pull them in when it's really wet because they're not used to such wet conditions and we want to make sure they're nice and safe. Kylie Baxter And what are you hearing from colleagues and friends around the state? Because we're seeing some really sad pictures of animals trapped by these floodwaters. Dean Reid Yeah, it's terrible to see. Like, you know, we've been hit pretty hard up here, but thankfully, you know, we've got lots of boots on the ground and we're doing what we need to do. But it's just terrible to see the devastation in Taree and Port Macquarie and all those places and seeing cows on beaches. But on a good note, my neighbour next door was trying to get his pump out and a platypus popped right up. So they're doing well. Kylie Baxter Oh, well, that's good to hear. Look, I'm really glad that all of your animals are safe and that you're, you know, now able to get on the ground and do what you need to do. Dean, thanks for updating us on the situation. Dean Reid No, my pleasure. Thanks for having us.