Tiny northern quoll returned to the wild after epic stowaway journey
A juvenile northern quoll survived an interstate Christmas road trip after accidentally hitching a ride hidden with the luggage. Find out how he survived and how he was returned to the wild
READING LEVEL: GREEN
A curious juvenile* quoll has survived the adventure of a lifetime after hitching a ride aboard one family’s Christmas road trip.
The Lyons family – Dan, his wife Peta, kids Aleisha, 22 and Jack, 20, and Smudge the cattle dog – had driven through the night from Far North Queensland to visit family in Dubbo, NSW.
“When we got to Dubbo, my daughter went to get her bag out and she said, ‘Oh, there’s a quoll in here!’,” Mr Lyons said.
The family had unwittingly brought the stowaway* with them more than 2400 kilometres from their property north of Cooktown, where threatened* northern quolls are abundant in the surrounding bushland.
“When you look back, the dogs were chasing something around the car as I was packing for the trip, and they must have chased him in there just before we left,” Mr Lyons said.
“Smudge was trying to get into the back with the luggage, but we still didn’t pick up that there was something in there and because it was raining so heavily, we just kept driving through the night until we got to Dubbo.
“We thought ‘we can’t just let it out here’, so we rang the zoo to see if they could help.”
Taronga Wildlife Hospital Dubbo was winding down after its busiest year yet, but news of the incoming patient – one of their final cases of the year – created quite a stir.
The hospital had already welcomed 836 other wildlife cases through the doors in 2025, but on December 29 the team got the call to help get the hitchhiker* out of the back of a Prado station wagon.
“We took it to the quarantine* building, but (the quoll) ended up going into the lining of the car,” Mr Lyons said. “It was a big anticlimax* for everyone, I think, as it didn’t even get out of the car!
“They gave us a cage trap and some food for bait and we set that up in the car, but he was so small he kept getting out. I ended up having to modify the trap, but we caught him and took him to the zoo the next morning.”
Nicknamed “Stowie” by the Lyons family, the juvenile male northern quoll underwent a full health check once admitted. Estimated to be between four to five months old, the quoll was found to be in good health after his adventure.
“I think his journey was probably quite stressful for him, being in a very strange environment with people, but considering all of that, he actually held up beautifully,” said senior veterinarian* Dr Alisa Wallace.
“Once he was here, he didn’t waste any time tucking into his food and that bodes really well for him going back to the wild. He’s been really resilient*.
“Our next mission was then to get him home. His species doesn’t occur in NSW so it was really important to get him home.”
After six weeks at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital Dubbo, Stowie doubled his body weight and received one final health check to confirm he was ready to be transported back to Far North Queensland.
Taronga’s veterinary team worked closely with Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to co-ordinate the logistics. After two flights and a four-hour drive from Cairns, the young quoll was successfully released back into the wild, near where his stowaway odyssey began.
Stowie, the Dubbo’s hospital’s 837th wildlife case for 2025, was definitely “one of the most unusual” patients, Dr Wallace said.
Northern quolls can be found across northern Australia, where they face threats from habitat* loss, predation* from cats and foxes and interactions with the toxic cane toad.
“It was really quite special to see a northern quoll down here, but it’s a threatened species, which made it even more important to get him back home,” Dr Wallace said.
“We’re really glad that we’ve been able to help him get back to where he’s supposed to be and hopefully go and breed in the wild. He’s finally back out there where he’s meant to be.”
POLL
GLOSSARY
- stowaway: generally refers to a person who deliberately hides aboard a vehicle, ship, or aircraft in order to get a free trip
- threatened: a species of animal or plant that is rare and may become an endangered species in the near future
- hitchhiker: someone who travels by getting free lifts from passing vehicles
- quarantine: to stay away from others for a period of time because you have a disease, or may have one, in order to prevent the spread of the disease
- anticlimax: an event or experience that causes disappointment because it is less exciting than was expected
- veterinarian: trained in the medical treatment of animals
- resilient: able to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened
- habitat: the natural environment in which an animal or plant usually lives
- predation: when an animal predator hunts, kills, and eats other animals
- toxic: poisonous
EXTRA READING
Marsupials ‘quoll-ify’ for new home
QUICK QUIZ
- How far did Stowie travel?
- What the total number of patients treated by the Taronga Wildlife Hospital Dubbo last year?
- What did they have to use to get Stowie out of the car?
- What are the threats faced by northern quolls?
- How long did Stowie spend recovering at the hospital in Dubbo?
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Animal survival
How did Stowie the quoll survive the 2400km journey?
Would this quoll likely have survived if they had released it in Dubbo?
How do animals usually spread to new places?
Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
Use a map of Australia to draw a possible route the Lyons family may have taken to get from Cooktown to Dubbo.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Geography, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
I spy nouns
Nouns are places, names (of people and objects), and time (months or days of the week).
How many nouns can you find in the article?
Can you sort them into places, names and time?
Pick three nouns and add an adjective (describing word) to the nouns.