Quoll-ity conservation program to boost native wild quoll population

Two dozen endangered marsupials are free to roam after being released into the wild as part of a successful conservation* translocation* project several years in the making.

The eastern quoll became extinct* on mainland Australia more than 50 years ago and scientists have been increasingly concerned about the remaining population in Tasmania due to habitat* loss and introduced predators*.

Conservation ecologist* with the Tasmanian Land Conservancy and University of Tasmania adjunct* researcher Dr David Hamilton said quolls were an important predator that helped regulate the populations of smaller animals and insects.

“When we see those kinds of predators start to disappear, it’s a really noticeable impact in different parts of the ecosystem*,” Dr Hamilton said at Bonorong, one of the four animal sanctuaries* that make up the Tasmanian quoll conservation program.

“You can get some smaller feral* species taking off in areas that don’t have a predator like an eastern quoll around – like black rats and house mice.”

Dr Hamilton was interested to find out why some remaining populations of quolls were declining while others were thriving.

He recently helped undertake one of the biggest eastern quoll conservation efforts ever seen in Tasmania, with 24 eastern quolls released in a fence-free haven at The Quoin in the Midlands in February.

The Quoin is a 5000-hectare conservation property with the “perfect eastern quoll habitat” — open grasslands full of potential prey that are bordered by forested areas containing readily available denning* sites and low numbers of feral cats.

The project aims to undertake more conservation translocations in the future to boost Tasmania’s eastern quoll population numbers.

Ultimately, researchers hope to use findings from the Tasmanian project to reintroduce the eastern quoll to the mainland.

ABOUT EASTERN QUOLLS*
The size of a small domestic cat and nocturnal* by nature, the eastern quoll is described by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as a “solitary but bold carnivore*” that usually hunts in open country or woodland.

“It can occasionally be spotted foraging* by day but prefers to spend daylight hours in nests made under rocks in underground burrows or fallen logs,” the WWF site states.

A favourite marsupial* for zoo-goers around the country, the eastern quoll has a pointed nose, a bushy tail and is covered in white spots.

The quoll’s colour variations are thought to be an evolutionary* adaptation to increase their chances of survival in the wild.

A female can give birth to up to six quoll pups per year, with each litter producing a mix dark and light pups.

Eastern quolls were once found across much of the southeast mainland of Australia, from the eastern coasts of South Australia, through most of Victoria, to northern NSW, but outside the remaining Tasmanian populations they’ve been extinct in the wild for the past 50 years.

* Source: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

POLL

GLOSSARY

• conservation: maintaining and protecting a natural resource to prevent it from disappearing
• translocation: process of changing location, moving something from one place to another
• extinct: no longer existing, the complete disappearance of a species from Earth
• habitat: the natural environment in which an animal or plant usually lives
• introduced predators: foreign species, sometimes deliberately introduced as part of a pest control strategy, often with unforeseen and sometimes disastrous consequences
• ecologist: scientist who studies the natural relationships between air, land, water, animals and plants
• adjunct: something added or connected to a larger or more important thing
• ecosystem: a community of organisms and their physical environment interacting together
• sanctuaries: a place where birds or animals can live and be protected, especially from being hunted or from dangerous conditions
• feral: wild, untamed, undomesticated
• denning: digging and building in select places to create a spot for sleep and comfort
• nocturnal: being active or happening at night rather than during the day
• carnivore: meat eating, an animal that feeds on other animals
• foraging: hunting, looking for food, going from place to place
• marsupial: mammals born without being fully grown that are then carried by a pouch
• evolutionary: relating to the way in which populations of living things change and develop over time

EXTRA READING

Endangered baby quolls

How Tassie tigers will be reborn

Big welcome for endangered baby animals

QUICK QUIZ

1. How many eastern quolls were moved in the conservation translocation project?
2. How long have eastern quolls been extinct on mainland Australia?
3. What were the main factors leading to their extinction in the wild outside Tasmania?
4. What is the Quoin and how big an area does it cover?
5. Why does Dr Hamilton consider the species an important predator?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Declining versus thriving
The latest quoll research study in Tasmania was trying to find out why some remaining populations of quolls were declining while others were thriving. Reading the information from the Kids News article, and brainstorming with a classmate, try and come up with some reasons and possible solutions for this.

Different Quoll species:

Declining:

Possible reasons:

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Possible solutions:

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Thriving:

Possible reasons:

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–

–

How to maintain and continue improving:

–

–

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Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Do you think this conservation project will achieve its goal of reintroducing the eastern quoll to the mainland of Australia?

If so, how should we celebrate that milestone after the marsupial has been extinct in the wild outside Tasmania for the past 50 years?

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word. They are often found describing a noun. Start by looking at the words before the nouns.

Search for all the adjectives you can find in the article.

Did you find any repeat adjectives or are they all different?

Extension:
Pick three of your favourite adjectives from the text and put them in your own sentences to show other ways to use them.

Have you used any in your writing?