Five endangered species have been released back into the wild after what Zoos Victoria described as one of its most successful breeding seasons.

The organisation said its breeding program had increased the population of some of the Victoria’s most endangered species by more than 10 per cent.

Assistant curator at Healesville Sanctuary Dr Melanie Lancaster said many of the animals bred in captivity had been released.

“For Zoo’s Victoria that’s a really big deal, and it includes Tasmanian devils for the first time,” Dr Lancaster said

“We’ve done really well with our orange-bellied parrot and our helmeted honeyeater program, as well as our corroboree frog programs.”

The breeding program also resulted in an increase in the number of mountain pygmy-possums.

Dr Lancaster said the year had been particularly fruitful because Zoos Victoria was successful both with the breeding and releasing of endangered animals.

“We have a number of animals that we are specifically breeding as part of our commitment to fight extinction of Victoria’s most endangered species,” she said.

“We’ve had a very successful year because we’ve had high numbers of animals produced, and we’ve also released a lot of those animals back to the wild.”

The announcement came on National Threatened Species Day, commemorating the death of the last Tasmanian tiger in captivity in 1936.

“That was a really devastating extinction and it really helps us to remind us of our goal which is not to let any more of Australia’s beautiful and unique animals go extinct,” Dr Lancaster said.