{"id":1031826,"date":"2026-06-17T06:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1031826\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T06:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:47:17","slug":"runaway-gold-coast-tasmanian-devil-mary-recaptured-after-two-week-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1031826\/","title":{"rendered":"Runaway Gold Coast Tasmanian devil Mary recaptured after two-week search"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Tasmanian devil that sparked a two-week search across the Gold Coast has been found and recaptured.<\/p>\n

The marsupial, named Mary, escaped from her enclosure at Paradise Country on June 2 by making what staff described as an “abnormally large leap”.<\/p>\n

Wildlife staff and specialists had spent the past fortnight searching for the two-year-old devil, deploying sniffer dogs, thermal drone technology and humane traps in an effort to bring her home safely.<\/p>\n

\"Tasmanian<\/p>\n

Mary (not pictured here) escaped her enclosure more than two weeks ago. (Supplied: Aussie Ark)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Village Roadshow Theme Parks said Mary was found last night in an area of bushland just off Kopps Road in Oxenford, less than two kilometres from the park.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the spokesperson said Mary was in an “unstable condition” when she was found.<\/p>\n

“The team assessed and determined she required veterinary care and rushed her to a specialist veterinary hospital where they were able to stabilise her condition,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Paradise Country’s experienced wildlife team is continuing to support and care for Mary, who is currently stable and remaining in the veterinary hospital to allow specialists to conduct further diagnostic testing.”<\/p>\n

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The search had uncovered several signs suggesting Mary was coping well in the wild.<\/p>\n

Carers found devil droppings in nearby bushland and discovered the remains of kangaroo and wallaby carcasses<\/a>, indicating that she had been able to find food while on the run.<\/p>\n

Captive animal experts had previously noted that the surrounding environment provided favourable conditions for a Tasmanian devil to survive.<\/p>\n

But University of Queensland adjunct professor, Al Mucci, said it could take between 24 hours and a week for Mary’s condition to improve after “roughing it” for so long.<\/p>\n

“She’s a captive-bred animal, out in the wild between suburbia and bushland, and she’s got to fend for herself, find her own food, find water, and find a place to sleep,” he said.<\/p>\n

Enclosure was ‘compliant’<\/p>\n

A Department of Primary Industries (DPI) spokesperson said Mary was “not out of the woods yet” but had been receiving the best care possible since she was found at 8:30pm on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“Following Mary\u2019s escape,\u00a0DPI has conducted an onsite investigation of the premises and\u00a0is satisfied\u00a0the enclosures were already compliant\u00a0with legislated\u00a0requirements,” Animal Biosecurity general manager Allison Crook said.<\/p>\n

Griffith University wildlife researcher Douglas Kerlin said Mary could have faced significant dangers while roaming the suburban bushland, including dog attacks and car strikes.<\/p>\n

“They basically are beautifully evolved to be able to just absolutely demolish a carcass and leave nothing behind,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If she found any sort of food, she would have made 100 per cent maximal use of it.”<\/p>\n

Dr Kerlin said veterinarians would focus on assessing Mary’s physical condition.<\/p>\n

“They will be doing weight checks and probably looking at dehydration and looking to see whether she picked up any nicks, scratches or bruises during her two weeks in the wild,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tasmanian devil that sparked a two-week search across the Gold Coast has been found and recaptured. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1031827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[98310,284732,70,284733,16,15,1717],"class_list":["post-1031826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-mary","tag-paradise-country","tag-science","tag-tasmanian-devil","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116764111513002074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}