The Toledo Zoo in Ohio is talking up the discovery, with the news spreading worldwide.

Biofluorescence is a phenomenon where an organism absorbs energy from light and re-emits it as a different colour, giving off a glow-in-dark type effect.

Chris Coupland, sanctuary operations manager at Devils @ Cradle Wildlife Park in Cradle Mountain says its the first time he's heard of this occurring in a Tassie devil.

"It's known to occur in other animals like wombats and platypus but no, not in devils," Mr Coupland said.

"It's a really interesting finding, and it will be interesting to see how the research unfolds."

Toledo Zoo has said the skin around the snout, eyes and inner ear of the animal absorbs ultraviolet light, re-emitting it as the blue, visible light appearing in their image.

"We're always interested in understanding as much as we can about the animals we look after at the sanctuary," he said.

"The better we understand them, the better we can understand how to protect them."