MELBOURNE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two Tasmanian Devils vitally important to the endangered species' survival have been killed, local media reported Friday.
The two animals, which were part of a group of 33 devils immunized against devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) that nearly wiped the species out, were released into the wild, but struck by cars near the release site.
The deaths mean that vehicles have killed nearly 10 percent of the immunized population since their release into the wild following the discovery of another dead devil in September, only a week after it was released.
Sam Fox, a project leader at the Wild Devil Recovery Project, said that while measures were being taken to protect the iconic marsupials, it was difficult to prevent road deaths.
"We have put a lot of effort into this translocation to try to mitigate road kill, but we're very aware that besides the DFTD, road kill is one of the primary threats for devil survival," Fox told the ABC on Friday.
"And while we know this is a problem for wild devils, we've also found that it's a problem for the devils that we've been releasing," he said.
"One of the thing we've found with watching the movement patterns with the (GPS tracking) collars that the devils have on is that they seem to like to move along the path of least resistance, so they will use roads to move."
DFTD is a transmissible fatal cancer that is responsible for wiping out up to 80 percent of wild Tasmanian Devils.
Researchers are hopeful that the immunized populations being released into the Tasmanian wild would breed with the general devil population and spread the immunization. There are estimated to be 10,000 devils living in the wild. The species only exists in Tasmania, not mainland Australia.
