Australia released 26 Tasmanian devils into mainland bushland teeming with feral cats, betting their bone-crushing jaws could shift the balance of an ecosystem under siege. Scientists watched these scavengers move through predator territory, tracking how they hunted, fed, and left carcasses stripped bare.
In November 2020, two Tasmanian devils named Lisa and Lenny were released into the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary in New South Wales, marking the beginning of a project to reintroduce the species to mainland Australia after an absence of roughly 3,000 years. The release was part of a larger effort involving 26 devils, all bred through a program run by the conservation group Aussie Ark. The goal was…