A 'devil' of an adventure for Melbourne veterinary students
Press release
17 December 2008
A University of Melbourne Dreamlarge Knowledge Transfer Student Grant has enabled three first-year Veterinary Science students to pursue their dream of learning all about one of the state’s endangered species – the Tasmanian Devil.
Lan-Hsin Kuo, Ellicia Leong and Aliza Wan Shan Choi visited a private wildlife conservation centre, Devils@Cradle based in Cradle Mountain, north west Tasmania, at the end of September this year. They chose to research the Tasmanian Devil as they wanted to learn more about the Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) that has ravaged Tasmania’s wild devils.
Since the late 1990s DFTD has reduced the devil population significantly and now threatens the survival of the species, and in May 2008 they were declared to be endangered. Programs like Devils@Cradle have been established to breed Tasmanian Devils, to monitor them in the wild, to create awareness about the debilitating cancer, and to reduce the impact of the disease.
“DFTD causes tumors to form in and around the mouth, interfering with feeding, with the devil starving to death in three to five months,” said the team-leader of the project, Lan-Hsin.
“We first heard about this aggressive cancer in our immunology class, and immediately wanted to find out more about it. Thanks to a $5,000 grant received from the University we were able to experience an up-close encounter with the devils as part of a trial voluntary project at Devils@Cradle.
“During our two-week adventure we learnt so much about the threatened species including learning identification methods such as checking the Tasmanian Devil’s teeth to determine how old they are, and microchipping. We also learnt how to handle them, learning to pick them up by grabbing the base of their tail. One of the highlights of our visit was assisting with the hand-rearing of two orphaned devils.”
Wade Anthony, managing director of Devils@Cradle said: “Our wildlife centre was established three-years ago, however this is the first time we have ever taken on board volunteers, and it has been a great success for everyone involved. We will definitely take on more volunteers in the future.”
Donations to the wildlife conservation centre can be made by visiting www.devilsatcradle.com
For further information please contact the Marketing Manager, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, Tel: 8344 7844 or email: vet-communications@unimelb.edu.au