Spotted-tail Quoll pilot reintroduction to Mulligans Flat
Dasyurus maculatus
Habitat Woodlands, wet and dry sclerophyll forests, rainforests, alpine woodlands, coastal heathland, swamps and occasionally grasslands.
IUCN Status Near threatened (population decreasing)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Spotted-tail Quoll?
One of four quoll species, the Spotted-tail Quoll (STQ) is the largest reaching up to 8 kilograms. They are found across the eastern seaboard and in Tasmania occupying a range of ecosystems including coastal rainforest to the high country. A marsupial carnivore, they are in the same family as Tasmanian Devils, Antechinus, Phascogales and the Eastern Quoll. Since European settlement, they have been greatly impacted by landscape fragmentation, introduction of feral species, road mortality and persecution by humans. It is due to this they are nationally listed as endangered under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
Why reintroduce them to the Sanctuary?
This is a pilot project to explore whether we can have STQs as part of a healthy woodland ecosystem in the Sanctuary. They are very wide-ranging animals and excellent climbers and its likely to be a challenge to keep them in the Sanctuary for a long period of time. The previously published draft Sanctuary Strategy highlighted the future pipeline of species we are planning to introduce as we re-build the woodland food web.
Spotted-tailed Quolls are a top-order or apex predator. Like sharks in the sea, we need apex predators to have a healthy ecosystem that is self-regulating. Building a food web, exposing Bettongs and other important species to predation so that they develop to be more predator-savvy. This will enhance the population characteristics to make our Bettongs more useful as a source population for other re-introductions elsewhere around the country (to Sanctuaries, islands, or areas where foxes and cats are otherwise controlled). Part of a healthy and functional ecosystem is to have predation as part of the system. Other existing predators in the Sanctuary include Eastern Quolls, Brown Snakes and various birds of prey.
Here is a great paper explaining the importance of predators in safe haven contexts.
What will they eat?
When introduced to Mt Rothwell, their diet primarily consisted of Brushtail Possums and Rabbits. It appears they are rather lazy predators and will preference a carcass over hunting, and if they do need to hunt, they will seek out the easiest prey option. While they will eat insects, birds and reptiles, STQs have a preference for mammals. They are an arboreal predator so will likely focus their efforts on catching possums, but they could also take bettongs (especially old or sick ones), young wallabies and the carcasses of dead animals.
These first releases are individuals sourced from captive displays around the country. Due to this, we are unsure whether they can be transitioned from being provided with daily food to chasing and capturing their own prey. This is another aspect we want to understand from this pilot project. We will be collecting their scats and analysing any carcasses found near den sites to determine what they’re eating.
Ultimately, we are hopeful they can play an important ecosystem engineering role, placing predation pressure on possum, sugar glider and other species’ populations, and picking off any rabbits that might sneak into the Sanctuary.
Spotted-tail quoll by David Cunningham
Will they be able to kept in the Sanctuary?
Spotted-tailed Quolls are excellent climbers. With that in mind, it is highly unlikely that each of the animals we introduce will stay inside our Mulligans Sanctuary over the long-term. While we will do our best to retrieve any animals that climb over the fence, we recognise that we may not be able to retrieve every animal that escapes. We have a number of mitigation measures in place to reduce the likelihood of this occurring, including: sourcing of captive animals, castrating them before release, soft-release (a gradual release process), and an internal hotwire / floppy top. Monitoring will be conducted after the release of the new quolls. If it has been determined that the quolls are playing a useful role, we will likely need to keep sourcing individuals from captive holdings around the country.
Two males will be reintroduced initially, but we are aiming to have a total of six living within the Mulligans Flat Sanctuary areas. Males were chosen over females as although their home-ranges are bigger, they tend to overlap, whereas females defend their territory fiercely from other females. The introduced quolls will be fitted with GPS collars so we will be able to track, download and map their movements over time.
What we hope to learn?
This project has three key purposes:
1. Rebuilding endangered Box Gum woodland ecosystem functions. As a top-order predator, the STQ has a vital role in ecosystem function and may assist in controlling populations of arboreal mammals within the sanctuary.
2. Introducing predation pressure so that should further trials of species beyond the fence occur, the source populations have been pre-exposed to predation from an apex predator reducing prey naivete. This information will be useful for the ongoing management of MFWS and may be used to inform similar reintroductions of STQ to other fenced or otherwise fox-controlled sanctuaries in future.
3. Understanding of what prey is preferable to this species within a Box-gum Grassy-woodland ecosystem, and for how long they can be kept within our Sanctuary infrastructure.
Who is involved?
The Mulligans Flat partnership (Woodlands and Wetlands Trust, Australian National University and ACT Government) will be jointly running this project with help from WWT volunteers. The University of Sydney will be studying the behaviour of Mulligans animals pre- and post-reintroduction of the Spotty quolls. This research seeks to understand whether there are behavioural changes of a variety of species in the Sanctuary with the reintroduction of an apex predator.
The ACT Government Conservator of Flora and Fauna approved the translocation proposal to reintroduce this species into Mulligans Flat and the appropriate licenses have been secured. As this is a research project, ethics approval was also acquired through the University of Canberra Animal Ethics Committee.
How can you help?
- Donate
- Volunteer
- Report any sightings
- Keep dogs on leads and in secure backyards
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Tasmanian Quoll Conservation Program and in particular Wade Anthony for helping secure us the animals that will be used in this project.
If you would like more information on Spotted-tailed Quolls in Australia, please visit: https://www.quollsa.org