Healthy Tasmanian devils released to test contagious cancer vaccine

33 healthy Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild in Tasmania's north to trial a vaccine against a contagious cancer.

Researchers have been developing a vaccine against the devil facial tumour disease, which has wiped out more than 80% of the population since it emerged 20 years ago.

Released this week, the devils were immunised and are expected to interact with the wild, diseased population at the Stony Head military training area.

Save the Tasmanian Devil Program Manager Dr David Pemberton admitted it was a risk to mix healthy devils with the native population but said it was the next step.

Dr Pemberton told the ABC “the key thing here is to be very open and wise, to trying to learn how to maximise the survival of these animals in the wild and then their ability to breed.

"Ultimately, we need devils back in the bush in the numbers they used to be.

"It's worth the effort ... to build the numbers to try and develop these techniques, otherwise we'll never make progress."

25 of the 33 devils released were fitted with satellite tracking collars - a first for the program.

Biologist Dr Sam Fox said the collars would allow them to track the devils' movements over coming months, adding “that's really important for us because we learnt from our previous release that if we don't know where the animals are, we can't track them, we don't know how well they're doing, we don't know if they're on roads.”

There has been some criticism of previous devil translocations projects at Narawntapu in the state's north and the Forestier Peninsula in the south, where 15 devils were hit by cars.

Dr Fox said the tracking collars were one of several risk strategies adopted this time round, advising “the GPS collars that the devils have on them have reflective tape on them so if a devil's seen on the road, it'll stand out.”

Wildlife park owner Androo Kelly has raised concerns about the release, and the risk to the devils of contracting the disease.

Kelly advised “this is quite a risky experiment they're undertaking here, releasing healthy animals into a diseased environment.

"The vaccine hasn't been proven to be successful at this stage so it's still an experiment."

The Save the Devil Program is planning another translocation early next year in Tasmania's north-east.

Image shows the release of Tasmanian devils on the Forestier Peninsula.

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