The Eastern Quoll, once widespread in south-east Australia, has been extinct on the mainland since the s. Where they remain, quolls use a wide range of habitats. They live in coastal heathlands, sub-alpine woodlands, temperate woodlands and forests, riparian forests and wet sclerophyll forests. Females are smaller than males and have smaller home ranges.
Male quolls can move up to several kilometres a night in search of food. An Eastern Quoll caught and collared for research in the Tasmanian Midlands. Quolls generally shelter in these dens during the day and hunt alone at night. Quolls generally breed during winter. Being marsupials, quoll young pups spend the first part of their lives in a pouch.
Females have between five and eight pups per litter. Western Quoll pups outgrow the pouch after nine weeks, after which the young are left in a den while the female searches for food. Young reach independence and leave the den at around five months. The Spotted-tailed Quoll can eat medium-sized birds and mammals, such as possums and rabbits.
Some Quolls can climb high into trees to capture prey, including tree-roosting sleeping birds. Northern Quolls are the smallest, most aggressive and most arboreal tree-based of all quoll species, Eastern Quolls are the least.
A Spotted-tail Quoll is released in the Tasmanian Midlands. Quolls eat carrion dead animals , and are sometimes seen scavenging around campsites, rubbish bins and roadsides.
Unfortunately this increases their risk of being hit by cars. Dens are made in rock crevices, tree hollows or occasionally termite mounds. Northern Quolls are opportunistic omnivore predators and scavenge on a range of food including fleshy fruit figs, native grapes , insects and other invertebrates, amphibians, small reptiles, small birds and rodents, and carrion.
Northern Quolls breed once each year and bear on average seven young. Females wean two to three young which become reproductively mature at 11 months. Most Northern Quoll males die at the age of about 12 months, after the short, synchronised breeding period, leaving the females to raise the young alone.
This species is the largest animal to be semelparous — the males reproduce only once, usually followed by death. Young start to eat insects at four months old, and leave the den to forage at five months old, whilst still suckling from their mother.
Introduced predators and habitat structure influence range contraction of an endangered native predator, the northern quoll. Biological Conservation. Hill, B. Ward Hohnen, R.
Ashby, K. McGregor Individual identification of northern quolls Dasyurus hallucatus using remote cameras. Australian Mammalogy. How, R. Schmitt Island populations have high conservation value for northern Australia's top marsupial predator ahead of a threatening process. Journal of Zoology. Version Kearney, M. Phillips, C. Tracy, K. Christian, G. Porter Modelling species distributions without using species distributions: the cane toad in Australia under current and future climates.
McGoldrick, I. Weipa commissions Northern Quoll surveys. Media Release. Rio Tinto Alcan. McKenzie, N. Mammals of the Phanerozoic south-west Kimberley, Western Australia: biogeography and recent changes.
Journal of Biogeography. Nelson, J. Gemmell Birth in the northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus Marsupialia : Dasyuridae. Australian Journal of Zoology.
Northern Quoll workshop Northern Quoll workshops for the development of the referral guidelines for the Northern Quoll. O'Donnell, S. Shine Conditioned taste aversion enhances the survival of an endangered predator imperilled by a toxic invader.
Journal of Applied Ecology. Online: British Ecological Society. Oakwood M and D. M Spratt Parasites of the northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus Marsupialia: Dasyuridae in tropical savanna, Northern Territory. Oakwood, M. The ecology of the northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus. Reproduction and demography of the northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus , in the lowland savanna of northern Australia.
Spatial and social organization of a carnivorous marsupial, Dasyurus hallucatus. Journal of Zoology, London. The effect of cane toads on a marsupial carnivore, the northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus. A report prepared for Parks Australia North. Darwin: Department of the Environment and Heritage. Northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus. In: Van Dyck, S. Strahan, eds. The Mammals of Australia 3rd ed.
Pritchard Little evidence of toxoplasmosis in a declining species, the northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus , Wildlife Research. Palmer, R. Mott, T. Sonneman, S. Garretson, N.
Thomas, D. Barrow, J. Coffey, K. Woolagoodja, E. Umbagai A survey for Wijingadda northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus and other fauna on islands in Dambimangari country in Talbot Bay Kimberley, Western Australia.
Phillips, B. Brown, M. Greenlees, J. Rapid expansion of the cane toad Bufo marinus invasion front in tropical Australia.
Austral Ecology. Queensland quolls. Radford, I. Fairman Preliminary report: fire responses of threatened mammals, and other taxa, in the Mitchell River area, north Kimberley, WA. Threatened mammals become more predatory after smal-scale prescribed fires in a high rainfall rocky savanna. Rankmore, B. Price Effects of habitat fragmentation on the vertebrate fauna of tropical woodlands, Northern Territory.
In: Lunney, D. Australian Forest Ecology. Rossiter, N. Setterfield, M. Hutley Testing the grass-fire cycle: alien grass invasion in the tropical savannas of northern Australia. Diversity and Distributions. Rossiter-Rachor, N. Douglas, L. Cook Schmitt, L. Bradley, C.
Kemper, D. Kitchener, W. How Thomas, O. Ingram, Bt. John Forrest. In: Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. Threatened Species Scientific Committee x. Turpin, J. Bamford Ujvari, B. Madsen Queensland northern quolls are not immune to cane toad toxin. Payne, K. Hennig An inventory and condition survey of the Pilbara region, Western Australia. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin No. Woinarski J. Wildlife Research Bulletin No.
Woinarski, J. Rankmore, A. Milne The natural occurrence of northern quolls Dasyurus hallucatus on islands of the Northern Territory: assessment of refuges from the threat posed by cane toads Bufo marinus. In: Report to Natural Heritage Trust. Kean The response of vegetation and vertebrate fauna to 23 years of fire exclusion in a tropical Eucalyptus open forest, Northern Territory, Australia.
Australian Ecology. Oakwood, J. Winter, S. Burnett, D. Milne, P. Foster, H. Holmes Surviving the toads: patterns of persistence of the northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus in Queensland. Wynn, M. Clemente, A. Wilson Running faster causes disaster: trade-offs between speed, manoeuvrability and motor control when running around corners in northern quolls Dasyurus hallucatus. Journal of Experimental Biology. About us Contact us. Other Commonwealth Documents.
Distribution Map. Species Profile. Profile Update. The following detailed profile was last updated on 13 July Australian Distribution. Population Information. Life Cycle. Movement Patterns. Survey Guidelines. Removal, degradation and fragmentation of habitat The removal, degradation and fragmentation of Northern Quoll habitat is usually the consequence of development actions such as mining, transport infrastructure, offshore petroleum or gas processing facilities or through agricultural activities such as land clearing, pasture improvement or grazing.
Inappropriate fire regimes It is suggested that Northern Quolls may be vulnerable to extensive frequent fires now characteristic of much of northern Australia. Parasitism Although Oakwood and Spratt found that parasitism was common in the Northern Quoll, they concluded that few individuals harboured large burdens and hence parasitism could not be viewed as a major factor contributing to the population decline of Northern Quoll in the Northern Territory.
Threat Abatement and Recovery. Recommended mitigation Best practice mitigation for the Northern Quoll follows that prescribed in the Northern Quoll workshop : Threats and key impacts Mitigation Habitat clearing Direct mortality Displacement Relocate the project Design the project to avoid and protect habitat critical to the survival of the species Reconfigure the project to remove threatening processes Retain movement corridors and put in place natural buffers Rehabilitate disturbed habitats Maintain habitat to reduce edge effects and monitor Avoid activities such as rock blasting or heavy machinery operation between May and November Quoll breeding.
Mitigation Approach. Management Documentation. Species Profile References. Listed as Endangered Date effective Apr Threatened Species Scientific Committee Threat abatement plan for the biological effects, including lethal toxic ingestion, caused by cane toads. Threat abatement plan to reduce the impacts on northern Australia's biodiversity by the five listed grasses.
Department of the Environment Threat abatement plan for predation by feral cats. Recovery Plan:. Hill, [Information Sheet]. Chades, Research priorities for the northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Cramer, V.
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