THE Tasmanian devil will be completely wiped out in a matter of years if the state doesn't stop the spread of devil facial tumour disease, Tasmania Zoo operations manager Robert Warren said yesterday.
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Mr Warren said that in the North-East the disease had knocked out more than 90 per cent of the species.
"The disease itself is spreading by about seven kilometres a year along the West Coast," he said.
"There's not much left of the wild population that's disease- free."
Mr Warren said people needed to do what they could to protect the devil.
The Riverside zoo took its first steps to help house and protect more Tasmanian devils yesterday by officially opening one of many new enclosures.
Mr Warren said the zoo was hoping to open as many enclosures as were needed to help the species.
"Our goal here at Tas Zoo is to at least get to the magic figure of 500 devils here at this site," he said.
"It's going to need a lot of effort and support."
The new enclosure was funded by Natural Resource Management North, which is one of the zoo's many sponsors.
The enclosure will act as a safe haven for the zoo's devil conservation breeding program.
Mr Warren said a male and female devil were put in the enclosure and the pair would hopefully start breeding in the next year.
