The Tasmanian devil is threatened with extinction due to a rare form of transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). In less than 20 years DFTD has wiped out up to 85 % of the devil population leading to the establishment of an insurance population of devils. The success of this insurance program depends on maintaining as much wild diversity as possible. Accurate pedigree information is also vital to the success of the program to ensure that inbreeding does not occur within captivity. The use of free-range enclosures means that in many cases neither dam nor sire is known. Traditional markers used in the devil have often lacked the allelic diversity required to resolve these complicated pedigrees. We have developed a set of single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers which have greater discrimination than traditional markers in determining familial relations among devils. As some of these markers are placed in functional regions of the genome we are also able to use the assay to assess adaptive genetic diversity in the captive breeding context. We are incorporating this genetic data into the captive breeding program to increase the chance of survival of the species and enhance the success of future reintroductions to the wild.