A two-week manhunt in Australia's Gold Coast has finally come to an end with the recapture of Mary, a 2-year-old Tasmanian devil. The female marsupial's escape from a quarantine facility at Paradise Country theme park on June 2nd sparked a widespread search operation, involving thermal imaging drones and dedicated teams of zookeepers.
The incident began early in the morning when CCTV cameras captured Mary making an "abnormally large leap" to clear a fence from her enclosure. Despite her normally shy nature, she proved elusive for days, with sightings on home security cameras approximately 2km from the park and the discovery of animal remains and devil droppings in surrounding bushland indicating her presence.
The search culminated on Tuesday night when Mary was found in a bushland area off Kopps Road, less than 2km from Paradise Country. A spokesperson for Village Roadshow Theme Parks confirmed she was discovered in an "unstable condition" following "extensive search efforts tracking latest CCTV sightings and geographical projection modelling." She was immediately transported to a specialist veterinary hospital.
Mary is now reported to be in a stable condition, remaining under the care of veterinary specialists who are conducting further diagnostic testing. Her companion, Mavka, remained at the park. Both devils had recently arrived from a zoological facility in New South Wales. The park's curator of animals, Lauren Mousley, expressed surprise at Mary's escape, noting that while two-year-old devils can be adventurous, Mary's typically shy and reclusive demeanour made her flight "very, very abnormal."
The diverse terrain surrounding the theme park, comprising pockets of bushland interspersed with housing estates, connected by narrow creeks to the more extensive Gold Coast hinterland forests, likely provided both cover and potential food sources for Mary during her time on the run. This demonstrates the adaptability of these carnivorous marsupials.