00:00I've come out here to the Boon Wurrung Wildlife Sanctuary, which is about 20 minutes north of Hobart, to meet Greg Irons, the director. Greg, g'day.
00:10How you going?
00:11Very well, thank you. Thanks for joining us. And just in behind here, there's a hungry, small, native predator. Who are we dealing with here?
00:19This is my friend Christopher. He's a Tasmanian devil with not a very devilish name.
00:24I just want to ask a very serious question, first of all. How are Tassie devils doing in the wild?
00:29Yeah, it's tough because obviously when facial tumour disease came along, they were worldwide news, which in a way was a good thing because it put them on the map.
00:38But, you know, the hard thing is now it's old news and there's a whole second facial tumour disease.
00:42So, you know, unfortunately, we see cases almost on a weekly basis.
00:46Their numbers have gone down and down and down, like so many animals, unfortunately.
00:50But, you know, there's so much we can do. Drive a bit slower, be aware of our dogs and just learn to live alongside them, just like all our other precious wildlife.
00:57Now, we're going to put a spotlight on the Tassie devil in just a moment.
01:00I do want to ask before we get to that, how clever are they? Do they have any special predictive powers?
01:04Look, he's right there. So I'm not going to say that they're dumb, but they're not that smart.
01:08Now, this election, according to a lot of pundits, is far too close to call. Polls suggest could be another hung parliament.
01:15They've got two little pictures here. One is the incumbent premier, Jeremy Rockliffe.
01:21The other is his opponent, Dean Winter. We're going to get you in there.
01:25I'm going to sit this one out because I think he's a bit too feisty for me.
01:28And we're going to see if Christopher can pick a winner for this election.
01:32Now, what we're doing at the moment is I am distracting Christopher while Greg is trying to put our little props in his pen.
01:42They are pretty inquisitive animals. And so as soon as I stop distracting him, he is likely to have a go straight away at these two signs.
01:51And Tasmanian Devil, a bit cautious, a bit hesitant at first. And Christopher has gone for Dean Winter.
02:01I'm not sure if that makes Dean the winner. I'm not sure whether Dean's the winner now because of that.
02:06But he's having a look. Maybe he'll change his mind. No, I think that there you go.
02:11The Tasmanian Devil has picked Dean Winter.
02:15So, Greg, Christopher, you promised he'd make his choice pretty quickly.
