Tasmanian devils were released on mainland Australia thousands of years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists Monday called a “historic” move.

Aussie Ark, along with a coalition of other conservation groups, said they released 26 carnivorous mammals into a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) sanctuary in Barrington Tops, about 3.5 hours north of Sydney.

Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark, said the “historic” releases in July and September were the first steps in a project similar to the successful move to bring wolves back to Yellowstone National Park in the US in the 1990s.

After 16 years of work, including creating the largest Tasmanian Devil breeding program in Australia, Faulkner said it was “amazing and surreal” to get there.

“It’s the things that dreams are made of,” he told Agence France-Presse.

“Our largest native predator is the Quoll tiger – it weighs just over a kilogram – so bringing back something that big is huge.”

Tasmanian Devils are back with the help of some friends! friends Embed a TweetAnd the Embed a Tweet And the MustafaHosny Oh God, Secretary Help reintroduce 11 demons into the wild on September 10. Embed a Tweet Demons are watching and everyone seems fine. #DevilComeback #RewildAustralia. . pic.twitter.com/Uck8P30DRR

– Aussie Ark (aussie_ark) October 5, 2020

Tasmanian devils, which weigh up to 8 kilograms (18 pounds) and have a black or brown coat, usually prey on other domestic animals or dig from carcasses.

According to government environmental authorities, demons are not dangerous to humans or livestock, but they will defend themselves if they are attacked and can cause serious injuries.

The animals – famous for their extremely loud, powerful jaws and ferociousness when faced with competitors for food or their companions – are classified as endangered after contagious facial tumor disease devastated the remaining population in Tasmania, an island nation off the southern coast of the mainland.

It is estimated that fewer than 25,000 Tasmanian devils still live in the wild, down from as many as 150,000 before the deadly disease first appeared in the mid-1990s.

On mainland Australia, it is believed to have been eradicated by groups of dingo – wild dogs native to the vast continent – an estimated 3,000 years ago.

Slice of Tasmania

It was hoped the project, Faulkner said, would create an “insurance package” against tumor face disease, which has so far proved incurable, and help restore the local environment.

“Devils provide one of the only natural solutions to control the fox and the cat, and the fox and the cat are responsible for all 40 mammalian extinctions (in Australia).

“So there’s more than one devil at stake here.”

“We’ve brought in healthy young devils. We put them in it now, which gives them the best part of the six months to settle down and find their territory (and) prepare to breed” that usually happens in February, Faulkner said.

Another 40 are set to be released over the next two years at the sanctuary, which is on land that Aussie Ark has bought for its suitability for habitat, large number of herbivores, and its location near a national park.

“The land was chosen in the beginning because it resembles a piece of Tasmania,” Faulkner said.

He said he is confident that careful monitoring of Tasmanian devils as they make their “colossal transition” into the wilderness, without providing food, water or shelter for the first time in their lives, will ensure the program’s success early on.

As part of an “ambitious” resettlement scheme, Aussie Ark plans to eventually introduce more animals into unfenced areas, where they will deal with a much larger array of new threats, including wildfire.

The Tasmanian Devil is one of seven basic species crucial to the Australian ecosystem that Aussie Ark plans to reintroduce into a wildlife sanctuary in the coming years, along with quolls, bandicoots and rock wallabies.