{"id":2627,"date":"2021-01-22T15:40:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T05:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2021-01-22T15:40:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T05:40:01","slug":"bruce-englefield-the-devil-made-him-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2627","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Englefield: the devil made him do it"},"content":{"rendered":"Bruce Englefield\u2019s decision to include a trip to Tasmania during an Australian holiday 20 years ago followed a conversation with a friend who assured him he would have a ball there given his affinity with animals. But it was the decision taken during that Tasmanian trip which changed the course of his life. Englefield was enjoying a cuppa with his wife Maureen after visiting a wildlife park on Tasmania\u2019s east coast when she looked out across the park, and the coastline in the distance, and said, \u2018we could spend the rest of our lives here\u2019. Six months later Tasmania \u2013 and that same wildlife park \u2013 is where the Englefields, and all their children and grandchildren, were living.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n\u201cThat afternoon 20 years ago I said to her, well, it\u2019s up for sale, so we could buy it and come to live here. She looked at me like I was crazy of course, but why not? Maureen had just retired from the health service, both our parents had died, and while we had children and grandchildren in England we\u2019d already fallen in love with Tasmania and the people, so I called the park owner over and said we were interested in buying,\u201d Englefield explained.\r\n\r\nWith a background that included working as a technical director for both the BBC and Thames Television, running a sheep farm, and \u2013 after achieving his Masters in animal behaviour counselling from the University of Southampton in the 1990s \u2013 an animal behaviour practice, Englefield was not without experience in working with animals, but with the benefit of hindsight he admits they did get a bit carried away.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe couldn\u2019t come up with a reason <em>not<\/em> to do it, but looking back there were so many things that could have gone wrong. Buying the park and doing it up took all our life savings because it was very run down, and I wasn\u2019t happy with the way animals were being looked after. It was pretty horrendous.\u201d\r\n\r\nOn that first visit to the park it was the behaviour of the Tasmanian devils that caught Englefield\u2019s attention. Although he had never seen anything like these animals before, it was the \u2018spinning\u2019 behaviour they displayed that made him wonder if the devils\u2019 small enclosures could be a reason. Since the emergence in the mid-1990s of the fatal facial tumour disease that has ravaged devil populations in the wild, but that has also resulted in a greater focus on the species\u2019 habits and behaviours, \u2018spinning\u2019 is now widely acknowledged as a sign of stress in devils, and a maladaptation to their circumstances, but in 2001 this trait had not yet been widely studied or confirmed.\r\n\r\nWhen the Englefields took over the Bicheno wildlife park they renamed East Coast Natureworld, few people outside the wildlife biologist and conservation communities were aware of DFTD and the impact it was having on devil populations. Coming from the UK, where there was regular monitoring for animal diseases like parvovirus, BSE, and foot and mouth, Englefield was concerned by the lack of preparedness on the part of authorities should Tasmania experience a wildlife disease outbreak.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen I realised there were no breeding programs for the amazing and unique wildlife that\u2019s endemic to the island I wrote to the premier \u2013 Jim Bacon at the time \u2013 urging him to build quarantine facilities in wildlife parks, and to establish breeding programs for devils, quolls, wombats, echidnas and possums etc, but although the then primary industries minister came to see me, unfortunately I wasn\u2019t able to convince him of the need for such facilities.\u201d\r\n\r\nDespite little public awareness about DFTD during his early years at Natureworld, warning bells were already ringing among Tasmania\u2019s scientific community, and a few months after he tried to persuade the government about the need to prepare for a potential wildlife disease threat, Englefield heard about a novel infection that was spreading among Tasmanian devil populations.\r\n\r\n\u201cI was at a conference and talking to Menna Jones from the University of Tasmania\u2019s School of Biological Sciences about the possibility of disease threats to the devil when I first learned about the facial tumour disease. Although information hadn\u2019t yet been publicly announced she said there were fears cases of suspected <em>lymphosarcoma<\/em> had already been found in devils on the east coast. Her advice was to keep my wildlife park animals separate from any injured or orphaned devils that might be brought in because at that point it was still uncertain how the disease was transmitted.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe disease scientists initially thought was <em>lymphsarcoma<\/em> was the one we now know as devil facial tumour disease, and some weeks after his conversation with Jones, Englefield found a DFTD-infected devil on his property while trapping feral cats. Finding a diseased devil so close convinced Englefield even more about the need to create insurance populations of devils, to be housed in large, secure facilities, quite separate from other animals, and where they could breed and rear their young in a natural environment until they could be safely relocated back into the wild. Frustrated by the state government\u2019s attitude, and the lukewarm response to suggestions this precautionary measure should be adopted, as well as a lack of enthusiasm shown by most of the Save The Tasmanian Devil Program researchers, he determined to go it alone.\r\n\r\nDuring his first few years in Tasmania Englefield had instigated the development of new standards and specifications for housing devils and wombats, with input from other wildlife facilities. These changes had resulted in an enclosure design that was eight times larger than the previous minimum standard. As DFTD steadily spread across Tasmania, causing a rapid decline in devil populations, pressure to establish insurance populations gained momentum, as did renewed interest in building larger and secure enclosures.\r\n\r\nThese secured enclosures Englefield designed in conjunction with wildlife biologist Nick Mooney, were conceived as \u2018islands\u2019, or large quarantine facilities, and they became the model adopted by the Devil Island Project that Englefield established. The project\u2019s aim was to build a number of facilities in Tasmania\u2019s wildlife parks and sanctuaries, to house insurance populations of devils. These facilities would act as a fortress, being double-fenced, with an area in between the fences to prevent animals living outside and inside the fences from biting each other. By 2006 studies had established disease transmission was through biting, either during mating, or as the animals competed for a carcass, (<em>The Veterinarian<\/em>, March 2006).\r\n\r\n\u201cThere was rather an attitude among some researchers who probably thought, \u2018what would an old chap from the UK know anyway\u2019, so getting funding to build a 28-acre double-fenced quarantine enclosure to house an insurance population of disease-free devils was never going to be easy. I decided the only option was to build one myself, so we set aside a 12-hectare block at Natureworld \u2013 and then I worked out the costs!\u201d\r\n\r\nUnsurprisingly these were significant, and in order to raise the funding Englefield knew he would need to enlist public support and sponsorship. His strategy was to link it to Australians\u2019 well-known love of sport, so he went to the media and announced his intention of running the London Marathon in order to help save the Tasmanian devil. It was an inspired move. His TV appearance quickly resulted in a team of nine volunteers signing up to run with him, one of whom was his wife.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe first person to contact me was Fiona Hoskin, at the time co-owner and chef at a renowned Launceston restaurant, who was committed to trying to save the devil. Maureen came with me to meet Fiona, and on the way home she turned to me and said: Well if Fiona\u2019s going to do it, then so am I. This from a person who had never even run for a bus never mind thinking about running a marathon! And we were both in our 60s at the time!\u201d\r\n\r\nIn April 2007, a year after the team began training, enlisting sponsorships, and running in shorter competitions like the Launceston 10 and the Burnie 10, they went to London to run in the London Marathon. They raised over $100,000, enough to build the first Devil Island facility at Natureworld, on land the Englefields had gifted to the project. Englefield took part in two more London Marathons during the Project\u2019s 10-year life. When it closed in 2017 \u2013 a victim of its own success \u2013 Devil Island Project Inc had raised $24 million, and enabled six facilities to be established, and over four kilometres of transportable fencing to be built. And while Englefield admits he still runs, he no longer runs in marathons.\r\n\r\n\u201cDuring that period I also did the New York Marathon, several half marathons, and the Point to Pinnacles three times \u2013 about the toughest one there is, uphill all the way \u2013 but at 77 it\u2019s time to stop! My jogging days are over other than the jogging machine at home in the garage!\u201d\r\n\r\nThe purpose-built facilities are now used as \u2018half-way houses\u2019 for devils reintroduced to Tasmania from interstate insurance populations, for their quarantine period before being relocated.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe project finally lead to a strong population of devils to develop on Maria Island which is now the source for healthy devil populations around the state. We set out originally to show that it was welfare-friendly to keep devils in large enclosures, rather than putting them in small enclosures in the insurance population. Devils are free-roaming animals and they should be given as much room to roam in as possible.\u201d\r\n\r\nEnglefield\u2019s dedication towards the survival of Tasmanian devils did not go unrecognised during those 10 years, and his advocacy for the species resulted in a number of awards. These include being named Tasmanian of the Year in 2008, and as a 2010 Australian of the Year Award finalist. He was also named the 2010 Australian Tourism Small Business Champion.\r\n\r\nThe sale of Natureworld, and winding up the Devil Island Project did not signal a slower and more relaxed pace of life however. Currently Englefield is a PhD student at the University of Sydney\u2019s School of veterinary Science where the focus of his research is on roadkill, and wildlife carers. Millions of animals, birds and reptiles are killed or injured on Australian roads every year, but the program and the phone app Englefield designed and that was launched towards the end of 2019, that enabled people to document and photograph roadkill was so successful it has been extended indefinitely. (<em>The Veterinarian<\/em>, November 2019.)\r\n\r\nHis concerns also involve wildlife carers \u2013 most of whom are ageing \u2013 and the legislation that requires carers to eventually reintroduce hand-reared orphaned joeys back to the wild without a behaviour appraisal, or a means of tracking and monitoring their progress.\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t believe we should be putting hand-reared orphans back into the wild. They\u2019re habituated to humans, that\u2019s unavoidable since they\u2019ve been bottle-reared. They\u2019re used to the sounds, smells and presence of humans and once back in the wild, without first undergoing a behaviour modification program that needs to be done by experts, means animals who are fearful and confused later that night.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s estimated that 50,000 animals are injured or orphaned each year, and hand-reared for release back into the wild. Animals that are part of a study are microchipped and monitored by cameras, but reintroduced animals aren\u2019t able to be tracked. Carers can spend two years \u2013 and their own money \u2013 raising these animals and then they\u2019re forced to return them to the wild without ever knowing if they\u2019ve survived. The grief that can cause is significant \u2013 like your kids disappearing and never knowing what happened to them.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn Tasmania, where the roadkill issue is known to be a particular concern for tourists, Englefield would like to see his roadkill app being promoted by tourism operators. He said it could help to educate tourists about who to contact if they accidentally roadkill or injure an animal, as well as assist in identifying where the hotspots are that need to be better managed.\r\n\r\n\u201cNot enough advice is given to tourists in Tasmania about where to go or who to contact, and this citizen science project could help, making it a positive thing since tourists are going to see roadkill anyway. This app could at least help get the data and make it worthwhile.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Anne Layton-Bennett<\/strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bruce Englefield\u2019s decision to include a trip to Tasmania during an Australian holiday 20 years ago followed a conversation with a friend who assured him he would have a ball there given his affinity with animals. But it was the decision taken during that Tasmanian trip which changed the course of his life. 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