‘Have there been field trials?’
‘Absolutely, from humpback whales to grizzly bears. It’s early days, of course, but genetic tagging is the future of conservation.’
Matt was riveted. With Sarah’s help, Binburra would stand on the cutting edge of devil research. They opened another bottle of red and moved onto theories of wildlife management. Sarah held a pragmatic view, believing that animals should be intensely managed, and individuals sacrificed to science if needed for the good of the population as a whole.
‘You do whatever you must to protect a species, right?’
Matt remembered Winston, Penny’s resistant devil that had been injected with different strains of cancer cells until he finally succumbed; remembered his suffering. ‘A species is more than a biological construct,’ said Matt.
