AusLeisure

A trio of Tasmanian devil joeys have been unveiled at South Australia’s Monarto Zoo, with keepers revealing that they have just passed their first health check.

The male joeys are five months old and are part of a nationwide breeding program to boost the dwindling population.

Zookeeper Simon Dower said the program was all about combating the decline of devil numbers across the country and the three joeys were all in perfect health.

Dower told the ABC "Tassie Devils over the past 22 years have been suffering from a transmissible cancer which is Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

"It's wiped out around the 80% margin across Tasmania, so it's a massive decline.

"Many of these will go back to the wild as part of the recovery plan and many will stay in captivity to carry on their genetics and breed."

The joeys were born to parents Mylo (mum) and Tupac, with Dower advising that keepers had looked at their eyes, mouths, joints, digits and skin and also checked for any parasites.

He advised "they all got a 100% tick I believe, it was a kind of quick-moving process to get them all done without too much stress and they all look perfect to me.

"A lot of the program is about quality, not quantity.

"We want to know we've got good genetic, diverse animals, healthy animals, so this was just a quick physical examination to make sure everything is in check."

The public will still have to wait a while to see the newest arrivals, with the joeys to be given time to mature behind the scenes before they meet any visitors.

Dower added "they are adults at about 18 to 24 months (so) we have to wait until they're ready before we can make plans for them to be moved.

Zoos SA has also welcomed a litter of meerkats - one male and four females - at the Adelaide Zoo.

Image courtesy of Monarto Zoo/Zoos SA.

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