Where the devil is Mary? Search under way after Tasmanian marsupial escapes Gold Coast wildlife park

A search is under way on Queensland’s Gold Coast for a missing Tasmanian devil who escaped her enclosure in a daring early morning dash caught on camera. The devil, named Mary, did a Houdini from the Paradise Country theme park, escaping from quarantine in the early hours of Tuesday. CCTV cameras caught the carnivorous marsupial skulking around deserted grounds at 4am that morning – before she scampered out of frame. As of Wednesday afternoon, despite a dozen of the park’s wildlife team scouring the area – alongside a drone operator with thermal imaging capabilities – Mary remained on the run. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email So how did Mary escape? Paradise Country curator of animals, Lauren Mousley, says that remains “a bit of mystery”. “At the moment, we do think that an abnormally large leap has happened – and that is how she has breached out of her quarantine area,” she says in a video interview released by Village Roadshow, which operates several theme parks on the Gold Coast . Mousley says staff were not only shocked to hear an animal had escaped when they made the discovery at about 7.30am on Tuesday – they couldn’t believe it was Mary. Mary and her companion, Mavka, were not long arrived from a zoological facility in New South Wales, according to a spokesperson. Mary is two, Mousley says, an age at which devils “can be a little bit more adventurous”. …