The newly discovered devil population was confirmed by University of Sydney PhD researcher Rebecca Gooley​ on Friday, after she DNA sequenced droppings collected from the rugged south-west of the island. The area was once a stronghold of the Tasmanian tiger, of which the devil is the only living relative.

News that a new population of devils which have lived in isolation is a significant boost for the fate of the tumour-plagued devil, which suffers poor resilience to disease due to its shallow gene pool.

Sydney University geneticist Kathy Belov said the genetically diverse population would provide a crucial boost to the endangered species' outlook.

Professor Belov said of the 17 genetic markers identified from the Tasmanian devil poo samples, nine were completely new genetic variants for the devil.

"For us this is massive," she said. "For years we have been calling devils clones because there's so little diversity and now we find that there is diversity out there, it's just in remote areas."

The devil droppings were collected in the heavily forested World Heritage area near Bathurst Harbour, Melaleuca and Cox Bight. It's a known hot spot for biodiversity - and the site of many Tasmanian tiger sightings.

"It's dense, inhospitable bush and if thylacines were hiding out anywhere this would be it," Professor Belov said.

She said it was not yet clear if this new population of Tasmanian devils were living free of the devil facial tumour disease which has devastated wild populations.

Around 700 devils live in captivity on the mainland and in Tasmania as part of an insurance population which is carefully managed for its genetic diversity and lack of tumours.

Professor Belov said the nine new genetic variants detected in the south-west population would be introduced to the captive and wild populations as a way of boosting the species gene pool, particularly for devils from the east of the state.