Jasper was one of four Tasmanian devils shipped from Australia to the Albuquerque Bio Park Zoo in New Mexico.
A Tasmanian devil was found dead at a US zoo with its skull crushed by a block of asphalt. Police believes that the animal was killed either by workers or visitors of the Zoo, The Guardian reports.
The evidence from veterinarian’s examination showed that the poor animal did not die instantly, but crawled to a log in the enclosure before dying.
According to the police report, the first suspicion of devil’s death lied on another devil. However, after the necropsy was completed and a small piece of the devil’s skull was found fractured, staff went back into the enclosure.
A chunk of asphalt 10cm thick and the size of a dessert plate was located. It appears the killer threw it at Jasper.
The devil’s body was found on Wednesday morning, and zoo staff and visitors are the focus of the investigation.
“It looks like there was malicious intent and essentially our poor Tasmanian devil was killed, intentionally, by what seems to be blunt force trauma to the head,” the Albuquerque mayor’s chief-of-staff, Gilbert Montano stated.
To note, the mentioned zoo is one of only two in the US with Tasmanian devils and hopes to breed them.
