tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/quolls-11173/articlesquolls – The Conversation2022-03-23T19:07:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1795662022-03-23T19:07:08Z2022-03-23T19:07:08ZResearch reveals 111 times Australian quolls reportedly chewed on human corpses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453755/original/file-20220323-19-tjqnxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7507%2C5007&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Warning: this article contains graphic descriptions of human disfigurement.</em></p>
<p>In 1878, the body of Sergeant Michael Kennedy lay in the bush in Victoria’s Wombat Ranges. He’d been shot by the notorious Ned Kelly gang – but the bush would add its own gruesome ending. </p>
<p><a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201538578?searchTerm=native%20cat">According to</a> the man who later stumbled across his body, “one ear was gone. I imagined it had been gnawed away by native cats (quolls). The body was very much decomposed”.</p>
<p>This report is not isolated. My <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/AM/AM21037">recent research</a> has found 111 accounts between 1831 and 1916 where the scavenging of a corpse was attributed partly or entirely to quolls.</p>
<p>These grisly reports reveal a fascinating picture – not just of quolls, but of life in Australia in the 1800s.</p>
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<img alt="two man beaside body in bush" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453736/original/file-20220323-27-1cldy4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Two men stand near the body of Michael Kennedy, after it was purportedly disfigured by quolls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/529561312162ef1930ebcd59">Victoria Police Museum</a></span>
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<h2>A captivating carnivore</h2>
<p>Quolls, historically known as native cats, are carnivorous marsupials. Four species are native to Australia: the spotted-tailed quoll, and the western, eastern and northern quoll. </p>
<p>Quoll populations in Australia have been declining for more than a century. Tasmania’s remaining eastern quoll population, for example, <a href="https://www.awe.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/e206aad2-6b02-42ec-8cae-139d2ba2f117/files/eastern-quoll-year-3-scorecard.pdf">fell</a> more than half in the decade to 2009 and numbers have not recovered since.</p>
<p>Quolls are <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00738.x">known to</a> scavenge. But I wanted to know more about their scavenging of human corpses. I hoped this would yield further insights into the animal’s diet and feeding behaviour.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quolls-are-in-danger-of-going-the-way-of-tasmanian-tigers-27744">Quolls are in danger of going the way of Tasmanian tigers</a>
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<img alt="northern quoll eating" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C2703%2C2015&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453730/original/file-20220323-27-6dgw3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The research sought to learn more about quoll diets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UTS</span></span>
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<h2>Delving into a gruesome history</h2>
<p>Of the 111 historical accounts I found of quolls scavenging on a human corpse, six involved definitive evidence – either eyewitness accounts of the behaviour, or tracks and scats at the scene.</p>
<p>In 1862, a police officer saw seven quolls scavenging a corpse near Sale in Victoria. Upon being disturbed they ran into a dead tree. The policeman “burnt them and the tree to the ground” – revealing the widespread antipathy towards quolls at the time.</p>
<p>Tragically, in two cases quolls were seen feeding on infant corpses: at Araluen in New South Wales in 1895, and Sydney’s Middle Harbour in 1897.</p>
<p>And a sorry account tells of a man lost in the forest at Winchelsea in Victoria. Found near death, he said quolls and other animals “had eaten his fingers and his toes. They had bitten his face and torn his nose away”. He died soon after.</p>
<p>In 105 accounts I identified, quolls were not caught in the act of disfigurement, but were assumed to be the culprits.</p>
<p>In 1831, for example, Captain Bartholomew Thomas died in the Tasmanian bush after an Aboriginal spear attack during the Black War. When his body was <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/233097793?searchTerm=native%20cat">found</a> it was missing half the throat. A member of the search party speculated it had been eaten by crows or “native cats”.</p>
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<img alt="A sign reading 'Caution Quolls'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453733/original/file-20220323-19-yvbiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The author found 111 historical accounts of quolls eating human bodies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In a modern context, it may seem a huge leap to attribute so many corpse disfigurements to quolls. And of course, correlation does not equal causation. </p>
<p>But during the period, quolls were a major problem. They were recorded invading homes and other buildings, and in one account from South Australia, someone’s bed. </p>
<p>In 1856 at Glencoe in South Australia, 550 quolls were killed in one day after the animals reportedly gnawed on boots and stock whips.</p>
<p>And quolls were, and remain, abundant in a few parts of Tasmania, threatening rabbits, chickens, poultry and captive birds.</p>
<p>So in this context, assuming a quoll was responsible for scavenging a human corpse was only natural.</p>
<h2>What we can learn</h2>
<p>In the 1800s and early 1900s, quolls were found across Australia. But the accounts I uncovered were limited to Tasmania, and a wide coastal-inland band from the Queensland/NSW border to just east of the South Australia/Victoria border.</p>
<p>Those areas had significant human populations – and newspapers to report their observations – which may explain the pattern. But at the time, the eastern quoll reportedly reached <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/zo/ZO14029">plague</a> proportions in some places, and may have been desperate for food.</p>
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<img alt="a spotted quoll" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453737/original/file-20220323-27-c4f1x7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The victims spanned all reaches of society: a former convict, swagmen, farm workers and labourers, Chinese settlers and Aboriginal people. They died from a range of causes including murder, suicide, old age and misadventure.</p>
<p>Some 85% of the reported human victims of quoll scavenging were male. This is consistent with social attitudes during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the outdoors was an overwhelmingly male domain.</p>
<p>Quolls are most abundant in late spring and summer. However, 41% of human scavenging accounts were reported in winter, and only 16% in both spring and summer. </p>
<p>This likely demonstrates quolls are hungriest in winter, as you might expect. But it also reflects the challenge of human survival at the time. There were minimal social supports, and human frailty or misadventure could easily lead to death from exposure. </p>
<p>Most accounts reported facial damage – to the eyes, ears, nose or tongue. Fingers and toes were reported in just three accounts. </p>
<p>Clothing worn by the person at their death, such as gloves, may help explain this. It may also reflect a bias on examining the face when identifying a corpse. </p>
<p>But it could also suggest quolls preferred some human body parts over others. In Tasmania, for example, quolls typically start on soft animal parts where they are able to tear open the skin.</p>
<h2>Bringing back the quolls</h2>
<p>I uncovered few corpse disfigurement accounts after 1900. This is consistent with a <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/zo/ZO14029">massive decline</a> in quoll numbers by this time, reportedly after constant persecution by humans, and disease.</p>
<p>Australia’s four quoll species are now struggling to survive. They’re variously listed as endangered or vulnerable, due to perils such as habitat loss, introduced cats and foxes, poisonous cane toads, climate change and car strikes.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/extinction-crisis-native-mammals-are-disappearing-in-northern-australia-but-few-people-are-watching-178313">Extinction crisis: native mammals are disappearing in Northern Australia, but few people are watching</a>
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<img alt="a group of young sleeping quolls" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453746/original/file-20220323-23-h56olt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Australia’s four quoll species are now struggling to survive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Quolls are beautiful and special animals. I want to spread their story far and wide in the hope efforts to protect them will be expanded.</p>
<p>In some cases, fox and cat control has allowed quolls to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aec.13091">return</a> to places they’ve been absent from for many years. But more conservation measures are needed. </p>
<p>Let’s hope quolls never again chew on a human corpse. But, restored to healthy numbers, perhaps they can resume their role in the bush as tough and wily predators. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pet-quolls-are-practically-useless-for-real-world-conservation-39039">Pet quolls are practically useless for real-world conservation</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Eric Peacock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 1878, the body of Sergeant Michael Kennedy lay in the bush in Victoria’s Wombat Ranges. He’d been shot by the notorious Ned Kelly gang – but the bush would add its own gruesome ending.David Eric Peacock, Adjunct Fellow, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/658822016-09-28T02:25:57Z2016-09-28T02:25:57ZEastern quolls edge closer to extinction – but it’s not too late to save them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138937/original/image-20160923-25464-1u1tgid.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eastern quolls face an uphill battle to recover after climate change drove wild populations closer to extinction</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eastern quolls – small, fleet-footed and ferocious – are one of <a href="https://theconversation.com/quolls-are-in-danger-of-going-the-way-of-tasmanian-tigers-27744">Australia’s few surviving marsupial predators</a>. They were once so common in southeast Australia that when Europeans arrived the quolls were reportedly <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO14029.htm">hyperabundant</a>. </p>
<p>But by the 1960s they were extinct on the mainland, driven down by a combination of <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR15188">disease, poisoning, persecution and predation</a>.</p>
<p>Despite their mainland demise, eastern quolls continued to thrive in Tasmania – until recently. Across Tasmania, quoll numbers <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=AM13004">declined by more than 50% in the 10 years to 2009</a> and show no sign of recovery.</p>
<p>Recognising this worrying decline, the quolls have recently been listed as endangered <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/6296/0">internationally</a> and <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=333#top">in Australia</a>. This is a stark reminder of how quickly a common species can plunge towards extinction.</p>
<p>But the quolls can still recover, as long as we act now while we still have an opportunity. In research published in <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR15188.htm">Wildlife Research</a>, I looked at what caused the decline, and how we can help.</p>
<h2>Change in the weather</h2>
<p>Several factors coincided with the decline, but after <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR15188">five years of investigation</a> I found that a period of <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129420">unfavourable weather</a> was the most likely explanation. </p>
<p>Eastern quolls prefer areas with <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129420">low rainfall and cold winters</a>. But an 18-month period of warm winters and higher seasonal rainfall during 2002-03 resulted in most of Tasmania becoming unsuitable for eastern quolls. This rapidly drove their numbers down. In fact, the amount of environmentally suitable habitat in this period was lower than at any other time during the previous 60 years.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Bennett9/publication/236116527_Climate_Futures_for_Tasmania_Extreme_Events_Technical_Report/links/5403f9600cf23d9765a5d5e4.pdf">frequency of extreme weather events predicted to increase</a> over coming decades, the future for eastern quolls looks uncertain.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138935/original/image-20160923-25499-19oq6cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Eastern quoll numbers declined as unfavourable weather conditions reduced the amount of environmentally suitable habitat across Tasmania (grey shading).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fancourt et al (2015)</span></span>
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<h2>The predator pit</h2>
<p>Interestingly, while weather conditions have since improved, eastern quolls have not recovered. With their numbers pushed so low, the remaining small populations can no longer breed faster than other threats kill them off. Historically, when quoll numbers were higher, they could cope with these threats. </p>
<p>Quolls are now trapped in what ecologists call a <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR15188.htm">“predator pit”</a>. Predators, cars, poison and a range of other threats are killing quolls as quickly as they can reproduce.</p>
<p>So population growth is in limbo – not because any threats have increased, but because small populations don’t have the capacity to outpace those same threats anymore.</p>
<p>Contrary to earlier predictions, <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-tassie-devils-control-feral-cats-the-devil-is-in-the-detail-37151">feral cat numbers in Tasmania have not increased</a> following declines in the Tasmanian devil population. Quoll populations could previously cope with the loss of a few quolls (mainly juveniles) to cats. However, that same number of quolls killed by cats is now potentially enough to wipe out any population growth, preventing the species’ recovery.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138944/original/image-20160923-2591-193f0gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While feral cat numbers have not increased in Tasmania, cat predation of juvenile quolls could still be preventing their population from recovering.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Numbers game</h2>
<p>The key factor preventing quoll recovery is their current small population. Quoll numbers need a boost, increasing reproductive capacity so that they can once again outpace the threats they are facing. This could be done by supplementing small, surviving populations in Tasmanian with quolls from captive-breeding colonies, insurance populations or the wild population on Bruny Island (which is doing better than mainland Tasmania).</p>
<p>Reducing feral cat numbers at key sites in early summer could also help <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119303">reduce predation as juvenile quolls enter the population</a>. That would potentially increase juvenile survival and allow quoll populations to grow and recover.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138943/original/image-20160923-2575-1j3lzhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Increasing survival rates of juvenile quolls in the wild is key to helping the species recover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Should quolls be reintroduced to the mainland?</h2>
<p>Since word of the eastern quolls’ plight has spread, there has been increasing talk of reintroducing them to Australia’s mainland, where they disappeared more than 50 years ago. Such proposals are often well-intentioned and could potentially help restore some mainland ecosystems. </p>
<p>However, this could actually serve to drive wild populations in Tasmania closer to extinction, making the species’ recovery more difficult.</p>
<p>With only small populations persisting in the wild, removing only one or two individuals from a population could be enough to render that population functionally extinct – and once a population is functionally extinct it is on the path to total extinction. </p>
<p>Similarly, using quolls from captive colonies and insurance populations for mainland reintroductions further removes valuable quolls that could be used to repopulate and recover wild populations in Tasmania.</p>
<p>The eastern quoll’s persistence in Tasmania decades after it disappeared from the mainland suggests Tasmania is a far safer place for eastern quolls and offers them the best chance to recover. Removing them from a relatively safe place and reintroducing them to high-risk mainland sites filled with dingoes, foxes and toxic fox baits could actually hinder, not help, their recovery. For example, while baiting foxes may reduce the threat from foxes, it takes less than half of one fox bait to kill an adult female eastern quoll.</p>
<p>Mainland reintroductions should definitely be a goal in the longer term. But given the dangerously low numbers in Tasmania, we shouldn’t take Tasmanian quolls for high-risk mainland reintroductions until the Tasmanian population is safe. Once numbers in the wild have recovered, wild-sourced Tasmanian quolls could be reintroduced to mainland sites without putting wild populations at risk.</p>
<h2>It’s time to act</h2>
<p>Australia’s declining species face a slippery slope towards extinction. The key to recovery is understanding why the species declined, then acting while there is still time.</p>
<p>Australia’s history is littered with examples where delays and inaction prevented small populations from recovering, with <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00239.x/full">some species now lost forever</a>. The eastern quolls’ fate is not yet sealed. But we have to act now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Fancourt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Half of Tasmania’s eastern quolls – Australia’s last population – have disappeared in the past 10 years.Bronwyn Fancourt, Honorary Research Associate, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/497522016-01-28T19:19:39Z2016-01-28T19:19:39ZFour unusual Australian animals to spot in your garden before summer is out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109444/original/image-20160128-26792-nor0xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's hiding in your garden this summer?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARobust_Skink_(Ctenotus_robustus)_(8637599554).jpg">Matt/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Your lawn might not enjoy the summer, but there’s plenty of Australian wildlife that does. In urban backyards across the country, you can spot native wildlife that appreciates the hot weather. </p>
<p>Some visitors are conspicuous seasonal guests, while others require you to be a bit more observant. Here are a few to look out for before the temperatures cool off – although many are much easier to hear than to see, so keep your ears and eyes peeled.</p>
<h2>Parasitic storm birds</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109441/original/image-20160128-26769-1x2elbx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Channel-billed cuckoo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AChannel-billed_Cuckoo_at_Adelaide_Zoo.jpg">Bilby/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you live in the north or east of Australia you may have noticed migratory Channel-billed cuckoos (<em>Scythrops novaehollandiae</em>) or Common Koels (<em>Eudynamys scolopacea</em>) descending on your suburb. Often referred to as “storm birds”, they turn up in summer to breed, then head back to New Guinea and Indonesia around March.</p>
<p>Channel-billed cuckoos make their presence known with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXnnvISzI3g">raucous, maniacal crowing and squawking</a> at all times of the day and night. And the incessant, worried-sounding calling of the Common Koel doesn’t win many fans, especially if you have one camped outside your bedroom window!</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oXnnvISzI3g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The koel’s distinctive call.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both birds are parasitic cuckoos, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests and then leaving the host bird to raise the cuckoo chicks as their own. Cuckoo chicks grow faster than the host’s brood, demanding all of the food, and the host chicks often starve. To avoid being discovered and kicked out of the nest, some cuckoo chicks have even evolved to look very similar to the young of their host. If all goes according to plan, the adult host birds will rear a healthy brood of fledglings … the only problem is, they’re not theirs.</p>
<p>Keep a close eye on any magpie, crow or currawong nests in your area and see if you can spot the imposters’ fledglings. And maybe buy some earplugs.</p>
<h2>Carnivorous marsupials</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109443/original/image-20160128-26817-1rstat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eastern Quoll.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEastern_Quoll_-_Port_Arthur_Tasmania_(5407538908).jpg">Rexness/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In summer, newly independent (and hungry) quolls venture out on their own. These skilled nocturnal hunters feed on a variety of insects, frogs, small lizards and sometimes even possums and gliders. The backyard chicken coop also presents an attractive option to this cat-sized marsupial carnivore.</p>
<p>The particular species in your neighbourhood will depend on where you live. The <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=330">Western quoll or chuditch</a> (<em>Dasyurus geoffroii</em>) lives in Australia’s southwest; <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=331">Northern quolls</a> (<em>D. hallocatus</em>) are found in the tropics; <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=333">Eastern quolls</a> (<em>D. viverrinus</em>) are restricted to Tasmania; and along the east coast are the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=75184">Tiger or Spotted-tail quolls</a> (<em>D. maculatus</em>).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, and probably due to loss of habitat, predation by feral cats, and perhaps because some populations eat toxic <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/cane-toads">cane toads</a>, quolls have suffered <a href="https://theconversation.com/quolls-are-in-danger-of-going-the-way-of-tasmanian-tigers-27744">severe range contractions</a>. So if you are lucky enough to have these backyard visitors, it is truly a privilege. </p>
<p>While in some places they are maligned as cold-blooded poultry-killers, quoll-proofing your chicken coop with mesh wire should prevent raiding. To catch a glimpse, venture out quietly after dark with a torch.</p>
<h2>Unassuming garden skinks</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109445/original/image-20160128-26778-8qyiev.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue-tongued lizard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABlue_Tongue_Lizard_ETJ.JPG">Esa/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Do you hear rustling sounds as you walk past a garden bed? Or see a metallic flash as something dives off a sunny rock into a pile of leaf litter?</p>
<p>During summer we’re inundated with snake warnings from the media. But all of our native reptiles (not just snakes) become more active as temperatures rise, and you probably have a variety of skinks in your backyard relishing the warmer weather.</p>
<p>Skinks are amazingly diverse, ranging from the multitude of small, garden skinks (such as <em><a href="http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/advanced_search?submit=Search&genus=Lampropholis">Lampropholis</a></em>) to the well-known <a href="http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Scincidae/Tiliqua/scincoides">Blue-tongued lizard</a> (<em>Tiliqua scincoides</em>). You can find them scurrying through leaf litter, basking on rocks, and sitting on fences and tree trunks – but never too far from cover. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Scincidae/Ctenotus">Striped skinks</a> (<em>Ctenotus</em>) are fast, efficient predators of all kinds of invertebrates. In fact, skinks are largely insectivorous, and thus are great natural pest controllers.</p>
<p>Grab a reptile field guide to work out which skink species are in your area. If you want to entice more skinks into your backyard, add some clumping native grasses, rocks, logs and leaf litter to your garden.</p>
<h2>Australia’s largest butterflies</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109442/original/image-20160128-26823-ld8g77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queenslanders might be able to spot Australia’s biggest butterfly in their backyard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOrnithoptera_euphorion_melb.jpg">JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In certain parts of Queensland, summer brings one of the most delicate, spectacular backyard visitors: the <a href="http://www.wildlife.org.au/wildlife/speciesprofile/invertebrates/richmodnbirdwing.html">Birdwing butterfly</a> (<em>Ornithoptera</em>).</p>
<p>Far north Queensland is home to the <a href="http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:1aeb3e9e-04ce-4ed4-b6ec-3778cfbe40ba">Cairns Birdwing</a> (<em>O. priamus euphorion</em>), the largest butterfly in Australia. From Maryborough to the New South Wales border you will find <a href="http://www.wildlife.org.au/wildlife/speciesprofile/invertebrates/richmodnbirdwing.html">Richmond’s Birdwing</a> (<em>O. richmondia</em>), which is slightly smaller but just as impressive.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gFGJz2T0jb4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Australia’s largest butterfly, the Cairns Birdwing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout summer you might witness a Birdwing’s mating dance, in which the female flies slowly from place to place and the male hovers above her. Females lay their eggs on the underside of native Dutchman’s pipe vines. If you have these plants in your garden, inspect them closely for short, fat caterpillars with insatiable appetites (they will probably eat all the leaves on your entire vine!). Make sure you have the native Dutchman’s pipe vine, as an introduced South American species called <em>Aristolochia elegans</em> is toxic to Birdwings. </p>
<p>These critters are just a few examples of the wildlife you might see in your yard. All kinds of native wildlife respond to the changing seasons. So if you’d like to find out what’s happening in your backyard this summer, get out there and take a look!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Neilly is a PhD student at James Cook University. She receives funding from an Australian Postgradute Award. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lin Schwarzkopf receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Main Roads and Transport Queensland. </span></em></p>Have a look in your garden - you might be surprised at some of the native animals that thrive there when the weather’s hot.Heather Neilly, PhD Candidate, Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change Navigation, James Cook UniversityLin Schwarzkopf, Professor in Zoology, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/390392015-03-19T03:49:11Z2015-03-19T03:49:11ZPet quolls are practically useless for real-world conservation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75293/original/image-20150319-2506-13nda42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could Tiger Quolls replace pet cats?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quollism/8470345318">S J Bennet/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Keeping native animals as pets is an idea that’s been around for decades. Notable proponent <a href="http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/michael-archer">Professor Mike Archer</a> regards it as a “no-brainer”. Yesterday Senator David Leyonhjelm jumped on the bandwagon by suggesting that Australians <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-18/leyonhjelm-pushes-for-quolls-to-replace-cats-as-pets/6329674">choose quolls as alternative pets to cats</a>. </p>
<p>Along with our PhD student <a href="https://twitter.com/trentforge">Trent Forge</a> and colleague Gerhard Körtner, we study the ecology of spotted-tailed quolls, including their interactions with dingoes, foxes and feral cats, in the high country of northern New South Wales. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, we’re big fans of these charismatic native predators. Despite a sometimes fierce appearance, quolls are typically calm, and recaptured animals readily habituate to humans. The right combination of calm quoll and tolerant human (or perhaps vice versa) would conceivably be a great match. </p>
<p>But it might not be so helpful for quolls in the wild. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75307/original/image-20150319-2506-nn5hz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A spotted-tailed quoll being handled for research purposes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trent Forge</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the broadest level, we don’t think keeping quolls as companion animals is an especially bad idea. </p>
<p>Further, we’re positively excited about initiatives that would result in Australia reducing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/feral-feast-cats-kill-hundreds-of-australian-animals-35555">negative environmental impacts of cats</a>. </p>
<p>So what’s the problem? Essentially, we don’t think the Senator’s suggestion is likely to do anything, in practical terms, to address the core problem of wild quolls’ need for active conservation. Ultimately, domesticating quolls is little more than a nice distraction from the bigger issue of conserving these species in a meaningful way. </p>
<h2>Good for quolls …</h2>
<p>It would be wrong to suggest there are no potential benefits to quolls from “domestication”. Pet status offers quolls the prospect of increased “value” within society and the possibility that people’s contact with them would boost affinity for the species, in turn, making people more likely to support conservation efforts.</p>
<p>However, it’s just as likely that we would see a separation of wild-living and domestic quolls, especially once we focus on selecting individuals with the physical and behavioural <a href="http://www.genetics.org/content/197/3/795.full">traits most appealing to us</a>. Think about the differences between dingoes and some popular domestic dogs. “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_dog#Teacup_dogs">Teacup</a>” quoll, anyone? </p>
<p>Such partitioning of the species would have the real-world impact of improving our understanding of their biology but not necessarily their ecology. </p>
<p>Take the example of tigers (<em>Panthera tigris</em>) as pets – the number of tigers as domestic pets rivals the world population of wild tigers – nearly 3,000 individual tigers are pets in the United States alone, yet this does nothing for conservation of wild tigers, populations of which are slipping away. </p>
<p>As would no doubt happen with domestic quolls, domestic tigers are subject to strong genetic manipulation to yield oddities like white tigers and the “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_tiger">golden tabby</a>” that have <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-ohio-zoo-slaughter-a-setback-for-tiger-conservation-3926">no value to conservation of the species</a> even if they were the last tigers in existence. </p>
<h2>… but not quolls in the wild</h2>
<p>We want to recognise Senator Leyonhjelm’s good intentions: with quolls as pets, it’s highly unlikely that quolls would become yet <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-australian-animal-slips-away-to-extinction-36203">another extinct Australian animal</a>. </p>
<p>Total extinction is the worst case scenario. However we should be trying just as hard to avoid quolls becoming extinct in the wild. Indeed, we worry that focusing too heavily on domestication-as-insurance may have the perverse effect of shifting attention away from the urgent need for active conservation.</p>
<p>If quolls are perceived as being secure, why would we spend money trying to keep them in the wild? </p>
<p>At this point in time, we are still buoyed by the fact that some parts of mainland Australia appear to have apparently healthy populations of spotted-tailed quolls. We are further encouraged by efforts to <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/AM13004.htm">understand</a>, protect and <a href="http://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/aridlands/news/140923-quolls-reintroduction">promote</a> our other quoll species. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75308/original/image-20150319-2473-1voo9u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We want our quolls here, not just in people’s houses as pets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guy Ballard</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Quolls threatened</h2>
<p>At our study sites, including those in Oxley Wild Rivers, Werrikimbe and New England National Parks, it is possible to see and study quolls in “good numbers”. </p>
<p>However, within the same landscape there is growing evidence of quoll decline, especially associated with core habitat loss, declining connectivity, and negative impacts from invasive predators. </p>
<p>Loss of habitat in and around conservation areas is reducing the functional conservation footprint for species such as quolls. Using GPS-collars, we often record quolls moving outside the conservation areas where they have been trapped. </p>
<p>Each foray represents an opportunity for quolls to expand their local distribution but they are often faced with sparsely vegetated and narrow corridors amid a sea of foxes and feral cats. Their prospects for survival in this type of environment are often poor. </p>
<p>These problems are reversible. We must not continue to knockdown old trees, not windrow and burn dead timber and we can and must actively <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-too-late-to-bring-the-red-fox-under-control-11299">control red foxes</a>. Feral cats are more difficult but not impossible to manage. </p>
<p>Rather than focusing solely on quolls as a new pet we encourage Senator Leyonhjelm and all Australians to at least also support active conservation of quolls. </p>
<p>Otherwise, in the near future we might have them in our houses but not in the wild.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Ballard receives funding and in-kind contributions from the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre and the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karl Vernes has received research funding from a range of funding bodies, including the Australian Research Council, the Hermon Slade Foundation, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Fleming receives funding and inkind contributions from Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Pest Animal Research Program, and NSW National Parks And Wildlife Service.</span></em></p>Senator David Leyonhjelm has proposed keeping native animals as pets as conservation. But that would do effectively nothing for wildlife in the wild.Guy Ballard, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of New EnglandKarl Vernes, Associate Professor, School of Environmental & Rural Science, University of New EnglandPeter Fleming, Leader, Wild Canid Theme, IACRC, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/371512015-03-12T04:32:04Z2015-03-12T04:32:04ZCan Tassie devils control feral cats? The devil is in the detail<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72753/original/image-20150223-32238-izrian.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could devils help solve our feral cat crisis? The devil might be in the detail.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ross Huggett/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently there have been discussions around <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-move-tasmanian-devils-back-to-the-mainland-16388">reintroducing Tasmanian devils</a> to parts of the Australian mainland. Some have even predicted that devils could help conserve biodiversity by <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/devils-on-the-mainland-promise-to-control-foxes2c-cats2c-savi/5987756#transcript">controlling the feral cats and foxes</a> that currently prey on a range of threatened species.</p>
<p>Some of these predicted benefits are said to be based on <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-move-tasmanian-devils-back-to-the-mainland-16388">“evidence from Tasmania”</a>. But how much evidence do we really have?</p>
<p>As part of a study investigating the cause of <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/256/paper/AM13004.htm">decline of the eastern quoll</a>, we and our colleagues investigated interactions between devils, feral cats and quolls in Tasmania. Our findings published today in <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119303">PLOS ONE</a> suggest that there’s no easy answer to the devil and cat conundrum. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C4%2C641%2C491&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72674/original/image-20150221-21879-13vu74k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A feral cat walks between feeding devils in a Tasmanian free range enclosure, but how much do we know about their interactions in the wild?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Plowright/Bicheno FRE, Natureworld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s the link between cats and devils?</h2>
<p>In Tasmania, it has been <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10393-007-0120-6">suggested</a> that devils may control feral cats through competition and possibly predation. With devil populations currently being <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320706001595">decimated</a> by the spread of the fatal <a href="https://theconversation.com/tassie-devil-facial-tumour-is-a-transmissible-cancer-34312">Devil Facial Tumour Disease</a> (DFTD), it was predicted that devil declines would allow <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10393-007-0120-6">feral cat numbers to increase</a>, threatening a range of small and medium-sized prey species.</p>
<p>In north east Tasmania (where DFTD was <a href="http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/tasdevil.nsf/The-Disease/979FEB5F116CE371CA2576CB0011A26E">first detected in 1996</a> and devils have been in decline the longest), government spotlight surveys detected an <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12152/abstract">increase in cat sightings</a> following devil decline.</p>
<p>This increase in cat sightings has often been interpreted as an increase in cat numbers, with suggestions that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12152/abstract">eastern quoll declines may then be linked to an increase in cats</a>. While this interpretation might fit with predictions, our findings suggest that such conclusions may be premature.</p>
<p>Contrary to predictions, we found <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119303">no support</a> for the hypothesis that devils control cat numbers. Sites with more devils did not have fewer cats, and conversely, sites with fewer devils did not have more cats. </p>
<p>Further, we did not find higher cat numbers in north east Tasmania where devils had declined for 13-16 years.</p>
<p>So how do we explain the increase in cat sightings?</p>
<h2>Scaredy cats</h2>
<p>Devils might not control the number of cats – but they may affect their behaviour.</p>
<p>The key for predators to co-exist is avoidance. By concentrating activity into <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3957/056.039.0207">times</a> and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12231/abstract">places</a> where large predators are less active, smaller predators such as cats reduce the risk of aggressive encounters with larger predators such as devils.</p>
<p>In our study, we found that cats and devils used the same areas, with cats observed at 92% of sites where devils were detected. While cats appeared to avoid individual cameras where devils were detected (a finding consistent with <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059846">other studies</a>), they were usually detected on cameras located only a few hundred metres away at the same site. This suggests that cats may avoid areas where devils are active, but only over short distances.</p>
<p>We also found evidence that cats and devils were active at different times. Cats were more active during the day, but in north east Tasmania where devils have been in decline the longest, cats were more active at night.</p>
<p>This suggests that cats may have previously hunted during the day to avoid nocturnally active devils. But with fewer devils to encounter following DFTD, it may now be safer for cats to shift their activity and hunt at night.</p>
<p>Even without an increase in cat numbers, this apparent shift in cat activity presents an emerging threat to a range of nocturnal prey species that may have rarely seen cats prior to DFTD. </p>
<p>If cats are now more active at night following devil decline, the increase in cat sightings in north east Tasmania may simply reflect a shift in cat activity times, with nocturnal cats now more detectable in spotlight surveys conducted at night.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71387/original/image-20150208-28578-1laxp18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cat activity times (blue line) compared with spotlight survey times (grey shading). Cats were more nocturnal in north east Tasmania (early DFTD region, where DFTD arrived 1996-1999) and would likely be more detectable in spotlight surveys than in the mid DFTD region (DFTD arrived 2000-2003).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Are cats to blame for quoll declines?</h2>
<p>Eastern quolls have declined by <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=AM13004">more than 50%</a> over the 10 years to 2009 with no sign of recovery. Our research investigated whether this decline might have been linked with changes in cat populations following devil declines. </p>
<p>Contrary to predictions, we found no evidence that cats contributed to the recent quoll decline. But our findings suggest that cats might be preventing populations from recovering by killing young quolls.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71392/original/image-20150208-28612-1o65o8v.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eastern quoll declines do not appear to be caused by any increase in feral cats.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At a stable quoll site on Bruny Island, the number of quolls trapped predictably increased over summer as new young quolls emerged - an annual cycle that has been observed historically in stable quoll populations. </p>
<p>However, at our three study sites where quolls had declined, this summer population spike did not occur, suggesting that juveniles are not surviving to enter the population, possibly because cats are eating them.</p>
<p>We found that cat activity changed seasonally, with daytime activity in winter but more nocturnal activity in summer – the time of year when vulnerable juvenile quolls first emerge from their dens.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this predation intensity may increase further should cats become more nocturnal following devil decline.</p>
<h2>The outlook</h2>
<p>We have only just begun to understand how devils, cats and quolls interact in Tasmania. Extensive research is currently underway that will hopefully provide us with some much needed insights over coming years.</p>
<p>We provide a cautionary tale that highlights the need to consider alternative hypotheses to explain observed patterns, as the implications for species conservation could vary dramatically. </p>
<p>Bold decisions and novel approaches are required to stem the rising tide of <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-save-australias-mammals-we-need-a-change-of-heart-27423">Australian mammal extinctions</a>. Proposals to reintroduce devils to the mainland are commendable and may potentially yield benefits for species conservation.</p>
<p>However, our findings from Tasmania suggest that the predicted benefits of such reintroductions may not be so predictable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Fancourt does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elissa Cameron receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Proposals to reintroduce Tassie devils to the Australian mainland have argued devils could help control feral cats. But new research shows there’s no simple answer.Bronwyn Fancourt, PhD candidate in Wildlife Ecology, University of TasmaniaElissa Cameron, Professor of Wildlife Ecology, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/277442014-06-30T01:59:42Z2014-06-30T01:59:42ZQuolls are in danger of going the way of Tasmanian tigers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51570/original/ssjycxq2-1403141596.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quolls have been hit hard by the introduction of cane toads, foxes, cats and other big changes over the past 200 years – but if we act fast, we may be able to save them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With sharp teeth and an attitude to match, quolls are some of Australia’s most impressive hunters. Ranging from around 300g to 5kg, these spectacularly spotted marsupials do an out-sized job of controlling invasive pasture grubs and rodents, as well as cleaning up carcasses. They are even credited with <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/90/paper/ZO12129.htm">thwarting early attempts to establish the rabbit</a> in Australia.</p>
<p>But our quolls are in trouble. The recent <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7010.htm">Action Plan for Australian Mammals</a> highlighted their extraordinary decline. Collectively, these species once occurred in high numbers across the country. Now they are all considered threatened, although not all state, federal and international listings reflect these current assessments.</p>
<p>Fortunately there are some signs of hope for one group of quolls, which we need to learn from if we’re to save these small but fierce Australian predators from going the way of too many other unique mammals, including the Tasmanian tiger.</p>
<h2>Northern quoll</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51187/original/857q7zyt-1402904152.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The endangered northern quoll has been virtually wiped out from areas since the arrival of cane toads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Morris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our smallest and most endangered quoll once occurred across northern Australia, from eastern Queensland to the West Australian Pilbara. But over the last century, it has disappeared from vast areas, while numbers have crashed in many others, probably due to the effects of pastoralism, changed fire regimes and <a href="http://theconversation.com/to-save-australias-mammals-we-need-a-change-of-heart-27423">feral cats</a>.</p>
<p>However, its nemesis has been the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/cane-toad-bufo-marinus">cane toad</a>, which poisons and kills quolls that try to eat them. Northern quoll populations have disappeared from vast areas immediately following the spread of toads. Even island populations of northern quolls have disappeared as toads rafted in on debris or flood-waters. It is a most unusual ecological quirk, with a prey species wiping out a predator over vast areas.</p>
<p>However there is hope. Some populations have persisted in toad-invaded areas, possibly because some individuals were never keen frog-eaters or because they have learnt to avoid toads. In an interesting piece of ecological engineering, researchers have also had some success teaching quolls to avoid toads following <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2922937.htm">taste-aversion training</a>.</p>
<p>Despite these hopeful signs, their outlook in the next few years is for ongoing catastrophic decline, mainly in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-19/rafting-wa-toads/5270188">recently toad-invaded Kimberley region</a>.</p>
<h2>Spotted-tailed quoll</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51094/original/xqncy2hr-1402829725.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite its larger size, the spotted-tailed quoll still treads an ecological tightrope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gerhard Körtner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mainland Australia’s largest marsupial carnivore, the spotted-tailed quoll, is a creature now verging on the mythical. Populations plummeted within decades of European settlement in their forest habitats along Australia’s eastern seaboard and in Tasmania, where they are second in size only to the Tasmanian devil.</p>
<p>Their position near the top of the food-chain, low densities, reproductive traits and dangerous behaviour make spotted-tailed quolls highly sensitive to landscape changes that accompany settlement. Even today, their mobility and opportunistic behaviour exposes them to a range of threats, including dogs, foxes, cane toads, cars, and retaliatory killing at chook-pens.</p>
<p>This ecological fragility may explain why spotted-tailed quolls are not found in many areas of suitable and protected habitat. Most protected areas are not large enough to sustain a long-term spotted-tailed quoll population, as many individuals in smaller reserves will travel into the dangerous world outside the park boundaries. This highlights the importance of larger tracts of national park and private land for conservation of threatened species.</p>
<h2>Eastern quoll</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51036/original/9j2n8xb4-1402635174.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The eastern quoll is extinct on the mainland and has declined rapidly across Tasmania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Fancourt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once found across much of south-eastern Australia, the eastern quoll is now found only in Tasmania. Disease is thought to be responsible for a sudden crash in mainland populations in the early 1900s, although foxes, cats, rabbits, poisoning and persecution have all been linked to their decline.</p>
<p>Despite their mainland demise, eastern quolls continued to thrive in Tasmania, until recently. In the 10 years to 2009, their numbers had <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/view/journals/dsp_journal_fulltext.cfm?nid=256&f=AM13004">fallen by more than 50%</a> with no sign of recovery.</p>
<p>While meeting <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/redlist_cats_crit_en.pdf">international criteria</a> for being considered endangered, there has been <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-12/fears-the-government-is-ignoring-the-plight-of-the/4817736">reluctance to add the eastern quoll to the state threatened species listing</a>. Exactly what is causing the decline is being investigated, but otherwise there are no management plans for the species in its last refuge. As an insurance policy, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-29/fears-for-eastern-quolls/5558354">captive populations of eastern quolls</a> should be established in zoos and in <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-frontline-saving-australias-threatened-mammals-28337">larger fenced sanctuaries</a>, in case they are lost from the wild before the cause of their decline is discovered.</p>
<h2>Western quoll</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51033/original/gqjvpc36-1402634769.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Long-term conservation efforts mean the future is looking brighter for the western quoll.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WA Parks and Wildlife</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second largest of Australia’s quoll species, the western quoll (or chuditch) now occurs naturally only in south-western Australia. It was once found across most of the Australian mainland, but like other quolls, it declined rapidly following European settlement, mostly due to predation by foxes and cats but with contributions from many other factors.</p>
<p>However, the outlook for the western quoll is more encouraging. It has responded well to long-term conservation management, particularly the landmark <a href="http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/management/pests-diseases/westernshield">Western Shield fox control program</a> in Western Australia. It has also been reintroduced into places where it once occurred, with a reintroduction currently underway in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2014/s3992629.htm">Flinders Ranges of South Australia</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to that action, populations are now stable or possibly even increasing. The fate of the western quoll shows that we not only have the power to drive species to decline and extinction, but we also have the capacity to repair our damage.</p>
<h2>The slippery slope to extinction</h2>
<p>The high abundance of quolls at the time of European settlement, and their deadly taste for poultry, may have contributed to our quolls’ modern decline. Common species often receive less attention and resources than species that are iconic or rare. However, threatened species listings around the world are filled with species that were once common, illustrating that the slippery slope from commonness to extinction is not as unlikely as it may seem.</p>
<p>The encouraging signs of recovery for the western quoll illustrate that population declines can be stopped and even reversed. But bold strategies, innovative approaches, large-scale implementation and long-term planning are needed to tackle the key threats to our threatened species. Our quolls are approaching the point of no return – and if we don’t want to see them go the way of the Tasmanian tiger, we need to act now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Woinarski receives some funding through the National Environmental Research Program (North Australian Hub).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Fancourt and Scott Burnett do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With sharp teeth and an attitude to match, quolls are some of Australia’s most impressive hunters. Ranging from around 300g to 5kg, these spectacularly spotted marsupials do an out-sized job of controlling…Bronwyn Fancourt, PhD candidate in wildlife ecology, University of TasmaniaJohn Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin UniversityScott Burnett, Lecturer in Science and Education, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.