Geneticist Kathy Belov with a devil pup. Photo: Sydney University
Telltale devil droppings have blown the cover of a secretive population of Tasmanian devils living in a remote corner of the Apple Isle.
The newly discovered devil population was confirmed by University of Sydney PhD researcher Rebecca Gooley on Friday, after she DNA sequenced droppings collected from the rugged south-west of the island. The area was once a stronghold of the Tasmanian tiger, of which the devil is the only living relative.
News that a new population of devils which have lived in isolation is a significant boost for the fate of the tumour-plagued devil, which suffers poor resilience to disease due to its shallow gene pool.
Tasmanian devils living in the south-west of the island may have blown their cover. Photo: Joe Armao
Sydney University geneticist Kathy Belov said the genetically diverse population would provide a crucial boost to the endangered species' outlook.
Professor Belov said of the 17 genetic markers identified from the Tasmanian devil poo samples, nine were completely new genetic variants for the devil.
"For us this is massive," she said. "For years we have been calling devils clones because there's so little diversity and now we find that there is diversity out there, it's just in remote areas."
The remote area in south-west Tasmania where the devil droppings were found. Photo: Carolyn Hogg
The devil droppings were collected in the heavily forested World Heritage area near Bathurst Harbour, Melaleuca and Cox Bight. It's a known hot spot for biodiversity - and the site of many Tasmanian tiger sightings.
"It's dense, inhospitable bush and if thylacines were hiding out anywhere this would be it," Professor Belov said.
She said it was not yet clear if this new population of Tasmanian devils were living free of the devil facial tumour disease which has devastated wild populations.
A birdseye view of south-west Tasmania, where the devil droppings were found. Photo: Carolyn Hogg
Around 700 devils live in captivity on the mainland and in Tasmania as part of an insurance population which is carefully managed for its genetic diversity and lack of tumours.
Professor Belov said the nine new genetic variants detected in the south-west population would be introduced to the captive and wild populations as a way of boosting the species gene pool, particularly for devils from the east of the state.
"The more diversity a species has, the more resilient they are and the more able they are to respond to changing environments, be it to climate change or new diseases."
The nine new genetic variants were extracted from just five devil dropping samples - an incredibly small sample size. Because of this Professor Belov said researchers needed to travel there to further study the south-west devil population.
Additional information could be gleaned from blood and skin samples taken from live animals. Whole genome sequencing could then home in on specific genes, such as those involved with immune response, behaviour and reproduction.
"We want to capture all the variants that are out there and make sure that we maintain them in the captive population," Professor Belov said. "And then we can release them into the wild."
