These little devils - Tasmanian devil joeys that is - have just passed their first health checks with flying colours.<br /><br />The cute marsupials are actually quite docile - unlike their cartoon character Taz - and cannot be checked until they leave their mother's pouch after four months.<br /><br />It is only when they climb up onto their mother's backs - the joeys are fully weaned at six months - that they can be sexed and health checked.<br /><br />The Tasmanian devil audit includes assessments before moving them into different enclosures at Aussie Ark, New South Wales, Australia, in preparation for the 2023 breeding season.<br /><br />Aussie Ark Curator Kelly Davis said: “In catching our adults in order to move them around, it’s also our first chance to capture and check the juveniles born in 2022.<br /><br />“This includes Sandy or Sandra D - in honour of the late Olivia Newton John’s character in the feature film ‘Grease’ - who was part of that 2022 cohort.”<br /><br />At their first health check, the joeys are microchipped, sexed, named and photographed. They also undergo genetic testing to determine their parentage.<br /><br />Kelly Davis said: “Because they are independent from mum when we conduct these health checks, we don’t know who their mother is. We certainly don’t know who their dad is.<br /><br />“So we take a small tissue biopsy from one of their ears, which is sent to a genetic testing facility. <br /><br />"They have all of the data for our mums and dads on file, so in a couple of months they can tell us who each joey belongs to.”<br /><br />A video shared by Aussie Ark shows trap-camera footage of the joeys and their mothers captured over the course of the season.<br /><br />The newly processed joeys will be housed in an “intensive enclosure” until they settle into a cohesive group, the park said. <br /><br />After that, they will be sent to one of the park’s larger managed environmental enclosures.<br /><br />Aussie Ark was originally known as Devil Ark, and its mission was to breed Tasmanian devils in order to save the species from devil facial tumor disease. <br /><br />The park now also works to preserve other threatened Australian species.
