Disease-free 'devils' transported to island home

The largest group so far of disease-free Tasmanian devils has been released in the wild, as part of plans to save the carnivorous marsupials from a cancer threatening them with extinction.

Twenty-two of the creatures, made famous by their namesake Warner Bros cartoon character, were flown to the island state of Tasmania from a captive breeding facility near Sydney and released in bushland.

The Tasmanian devil population has fallen to about 10,000 from an estimated 250,000 before 1996, when devil facial tumor disease was first discovered.