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A Tasmanian devil named Mary successfully eluded searchers equipped with a thermal-imaging drone for a third day on Thursday after escaping from an Australian wildlife park.<\/p>\n
Keepers discovered the furry, carnivorous marsupial was missing from her enclosure at Paradise Country wildlife park on Queensland’s Gold Coast on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
A dozen wildlife experts backed by a sniffer dog and a thermal-imaging drone operator searched through two nights for the critter, park officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Our priority remains on relocating Mary to ensure her welfare, and we will continue to search today and into this evening,” it said.<\/p>\n
CCTV images released to the public showed Mary running into the distance of the wildlife park’s grounds at night, several hours before her disappearance was noticed.<\/p>\n
Tasmanian devils<\/span> \u2014 agile, mostly nocturnal animals that can roam for 10 miles in a single night \u2014 have been extinct on the Australian mainland for more than 3,000 years.<\/p>\n The marsupials can live up to six years in the wild, with males weighing as much as 30 pounds and standing 1 foot tall at the shoulder, according to Tasmania’s environment department. According to the\u00a0park, they are scavengers that eat dead animals and “can crush bones, fur, and all with super-strong jaws.”<\/p>\n Mary is relatively young at 2 years old, however, and “extremely shy,” said the wildlife park’s curator, Lauren Mousley.<\/p>\n “Generally around this age they can be a little bit more adventurous, but finding that she is the one that headed out is very, very abnormal given her demeanor,” she said in a video update after the breakout.<\/p>\n Mousley said the circumstances of the marsupial’s escape remain “a bit of a mystery.”<\/p>\n “We do think that an abnormally large leap has happened,” she said. “And that’s how she’s breached out of her quarantined area.”<\/p>\n Mousley warned the public not to approach the animal if they see her.<\/p>\n “Devils can be reactive if provoked or if anyone attempts to catch them,” she said.<\/p>\n When Mary is located, Mousley said, she will get a full medical assessment and then be reunited with her housemate, Mavka.<\/p>\n Though widespread on the island state of Tasmania, the marsupials are listed as endangered and face a significant threat from a rare, transmissible cancer known as devil facial tumor disease.<\/p>\n