'Cutest creature on the planet': Auckland Zoo welcomes new Tasmanian Devils

Auckland Zoo has welcomed its newest residents with the introduction of two Tasmanian Devils.

The young sisters have relocated from a wildlife facility in Tasmania as part of the zoo's Tasmanian Devil Ambassador Programme.

They are still waiting on their palawa kani aboriginal names but are expected to help raise awareness and educate people about their species.

Auckland Zoo's lead carnivore keeper Nick Parashchak said: "They are the cutest creature on the planet and I will not have any word said otherwise."

Parashchak told Checkpoint the sisters were still settling in to their new environment and zoo visitors would have to be patient for when they would be out and about in the habitat during the day.

"It's taken them a while still because the facility in which they came from was non-public so they're still obviously getting used to the sights and sounds and noises that Auckland Zoo and our guests bring.

"It's taken them a little while but they'll get there."

Night cameras set up in the enclosure had shown zoo staff that they were climbing high in the trees - a natural behaviour for them as they liked to be high up.

Parashchak said Tasmanian Devils have very unique features with big teeth, big ears and "beautiful little noses".

"They've got shorter hind limbs and they have four limbs so they kind of have a rocking motion, almost like a pig."

Some people did not even realise Tasmanian Devils were real - thinking of them only as a cartoon character.

But Parashchak said they can live up to how they appear on screen.

"They can be vicious; they can be feisty little things but mostly they're quite sweet and elusive creatures. You're never likely to see one in the wild."

They are also endangered - and have been under attack from an infectious disease since the mid 1990s which wiped out most of the population, Parashchak said.

"It's a form of cancer that the devils will carry within them and then when they come into contact with other devils, whether it's for food or other resources ... they have these little altercations and they'll bite or scratch the animal.

"Through the transfer of saliva or blood to the disease-free devil, what happens is that infected wound will allow the cancers, these tumours, to just grow so grotesquely that within a short amount of time, three to six months, the animal either dies of starvation or organ failure."

Having the devils at Auckland Zoo was not only about educating people but it also gave facilities, like the one they came from, space to continue breeding new devils to keep the population viable.

Despite a male devil being at Auckland Zoo, at 5-years-old, he was considered "geriatric" and there were no plans to breed them.

Parashchak said devils had a short lifespan of just five or six years.