Pair recapture Scratchy the missing Tasmanian Devil

One of three Tasmanian devils that escaped from Peel Zoo south of Perth, Australia, last week has been found thanks to the valiant efforts of two men. Johnny Feeley and his friend Robbie Haddow were travelling home from Rockingham when they spotted the missing devil, named 'Scratchy', in bushland north of Pinjarra. Wearing only flip-flops, they chased the devil through the bush and into a pool of water, where Mr Haddow was able to grab it by the tail.



"He was running along the train tracks and he ran off into the bush and he went into the water so we had to jump in there," Mr Feeley said. "[I] had a few beers down me belt so wasn't really too worried about it to be honest." The two men wrapped the creature in a towel and drove it home where they secured it in a bathroom. Mr Feeley says trouble started while they were waiting for zoo staff to collect the animal.



"He was pretty tame, you know," Mr Feeley said. "They have been hand-reared and that so it wasn't too bad 'til we got home and he chewed a hole in me mate's bloody bathroom." Peel Zoo owner David Cobbold hailed the two men as "bloody legends" for their daring capture, although he said he did not encourage such heroics. But he said "the capture proved Devils aren't as dangerous as their reputation suggested."


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"The name is more about the noise than the behaviour." Scratchy's fellow escapees Itchy and Genghis are still on the run, but Mr Cobbold has praised the support of the public in trying to find them. "Hopefully the other boys will get caught soon," he said. The three devils wandered off from Peel Zoo after a falling tree knocked down the wall of their enclosure.