Escaped Tasmanian Devil Found in Rough Shape

UPDATE Jun 17, 2026 9:05 AM CDT

The she-devil has finally been caught. Two weeks after escaping from her enclosure at an Australian wildlife park, Mary the Tasmanian devil is back in care—and apparently needs it. Officials say she was captured in unstable condition just over a mile from the Gold Coast park on Tuesday and sped to a veterinary hospital, the Guardian reports. Well outside her native range, the scavenger was initially spotted on a home security camera, with other finds suggesting she may have been feeding on kangaroo and wallaby carcasses in wooded areas not far from the park. Her condition has now been upgraded to stable, with vets conducting diagnostic tests.

Jun 4, 2026 9:25 AM CDT

Drones and sniffer dogs are on the hunt for a Tasmanian devil who arrived at an Australian wildlife park and swiftly spun herself out. The new arrival, a 2-year-old female named Mary, was discovered missing from her quarantine enclosure at Paradise Country Wildlife Park on Queensland's Gold Coast on Tuesday morning and hasn't been seen since, though a dozen wildlife specialists, a sniffer dog, and a thermal-imaging drone have spent the last two nights searching, per CBS News.

It's unclear exactly how Mary escaped from her indoor enclosure—which had access to a small outdoor area, the Courier Mail reports—but surveillance footage shows her bolting across the grounds hours before her absence was noticed. She and a companion had been transferred from a New South Wales zoo less than two weeks earlier, 10 News reports. Park officials say she must've made an unusually large leap to escape and describe her behavior as out of character for an animal so "extremely shy." They're urging the public not to approach her, if found, given Tasmanian devils' powerful bite.