Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1130731
4 Every day our team of scientists go above and beyond in their commitment to saving endangered species even if it entails heading into a bushfire danger zone to help a dwindling population of Tasmanian Devils on the brink of extinction. When returning from a regular day of monitoring Tasmanian Devils in February, Zoos Victoria's reproductive biologist Dr Marissa Parrott noticed huge plumes of smoke billowing on the horizon. "The smoke was filling the air, there were water-dumping heli-tankers circling overhead and dropping water," Dr Parrott recounts. "And we started to get really worried, because that was the direction we were headed." Having been part of the evacuation of Healesville Sanctuary on Black Saturday, Dr Parrott is no stranger to bushfires. But recently while working at a field site in north-west Tasmania with the Carnivore Conservancy, on a project involving conservation partners from National Geographic, Wild Spy and Taronga Conservation Society, Dr Parrott found herself again in the middle of a bushfire situation. While the field area had burnt in 2016, so was at a low risk of burning again, the Carnivore Conservancy's house was situated in an area that has since become part of one of Tasmania's worst bushfire seasons, with blazes burning nearly 200,000 hectares in just a few days. "While our [Tasmanian] Devils were safe, the house was coming under threat," Dr Parrott recalls. "The sun was really small and bright magenta – a really scary colour." When Dr Parrott and the other members 'THE SMOKE WAS FILLING THE AIR': WORKING IN FIRE- RAVAGED TASMANIA of the group arrived home that day, they were greeted by two anxious colleagues who had been at the house all day. Everything was covered in ash, the bags were all packed, the cars were all facing the road to get out fast and the pair were standing out the front. "We could see the flames in the distance. At that point we decided that we weren't going to be safe if we went to sleep and the fire came," Dr Parrott said. The team drove to a nearby town and anxiously waited for news. "We weren't sure what was going to happen. We were monitoring the fires overnight and when we got back to our field house it was fine, thank goodness." During the middle of the night the fire had blown the other way. The house was standing, everything was safe and after a quick check the team headed back into the field to return to the Tasmanian Devils, which they knew were safely away from the fire zone. For Dr Parrott and the team, the main thing was that the animals were safe. One of the biggest tragedies from the fire is the damage to the local ecosystem, which isn't designed to burn. "They're rainforest areas, they're alpine areas and they're not like plants that have adapted and evolved to deal with fire on the mainland. In Victoria, there are plants that need fire to regenerate, in Tasmania, fires aren't supposed to happen like this and now these areas are lost forever," Dr Parrott says. "The sun was really small and bright magenta – a really scary colour."