Overview
- Mary escaped from her quarantine enclosure at Paradise Country after security footage showed her sprinting across the park shortly after 4am on Tuesday, June 2, triggering a multi‑agency search.
- A resident, Caitlyn Wis, recorded the animal on a home security camera about 1–2 kilometres from the park over the weekend and Paradise Country has confirmed the footage shows Mary.
- Search teams have refocused efforts near Saltwater Creek Reserve and are using thermal drones, sniffer dogs and baited humane traps to try to locate and recapture the nocturnal marsupial.
- Wildlife carers have found devil droppings and remains of small carcasses that indicate Mary has been feeding and moving through local bushland, which makes traps harder to bait and capture efforts more difficult.
- Tasmanian devils are not native to the mainland and fewer than about 25,000 remain in Tasmania, so authorities and the park are working with Biosecurity Queensland to review quarantine procedures and manage conservation and disease risks.