Australian wildlife researchers have infused some hope in attempts to save the dwindling number of facial cancer-striken Tasmanian Devils.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. Kathy Belov announced that her team has discovered a colony of Tasmanian devils that "appears to have genetic immunity to a contagious and deforming cancer that has devoured the animal's population".

"We think these devils may be able to see the cancer cells as foreign and mount an immune response against them", Belov told reporters.

According to the latest standings reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, almost 70 percent of the island's Tasmanian devil population has already fallen under the contagious cancer since 1996, the year when the first case was reported.

The genetically unique and immune colony of Tasmanian Devils offer some hope that the animals won't be entirely wiped out by the facial cancer.

Earlier researchers had studied devils in regions of Eastern Tasmania. This time, however, they decided to take an extensive sampling of 400 devils across Tasmania.

In the study, the researchers found that 20 percent of the 400 sampled, have not fallen for the disease. And they also found was that this particular 20 percent lot, was genetically different from its Eastern counterparts.