Paris, France — With its thick black fur, devilishly red ears, bushy tail, strident cry and reputation for flying into a rage when threatened, the Tasmanian devil is one of nature’s mythical animals, and one of its most endangered in the wild as well. Bonnie was born on May 4th, 2020 in the Devils at Cradle, the only conservation center in Tasmania. Last April 15th, she joined Mordo, a male, at La Ménagerie, the zoo in the Paris Botanical Gardens that is managed by the National Museum of Natural History.  They are the only couple of Tasmanian devils in France and are part of the international conservation program dedicated to these animals which are on the Red List of endangered species established by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which estimates their numbers in the wild at between 10,000 to 25,000 individuals. They live exclusively on the Australian island of Tasmania in the wild. 

La Ménagerie is specialized in welcoming endangered and threatened species that are often not well known to the general public and it is particularly gifted in keeping small animals, the reason why the Australian government chose the Parisian institution to be part of the breeding program. The pair at the zoo, a listed historic monument, are part of the captive breeding program for this species, the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world. Hopefully they will become the parents of the first Parisian devils. Though protected in Australia since 1941, the population has been in rapid decline since 1996 victim of a face tumour that decimated 80 percent of the wild population.  Today only seven zoos in Europe — two in France — are home to Tasmanian devils with a total population of 16 males and 17 females. There are 740 individuals in captivity around the world.

Bonnie and Mordo evolve in a space that has been equipped with grass, branches, places to climb and a shelter. Voracious carnivores, they eat a third of their weight in meat each day with their powerful jaws and sharp teeth. The zookeepers hide dead prey throughout their enclosure to bring out their hunting instincts. La Ménagerie, the zoo of the Botanical Gardens, was founded in 1794 and is one of the oldest in the world. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette https://www.mnhn.fr/en