Quoll-ity conservation program helping to boost wild eastern quoll population
The eastern quoll went extinct on the mainland more than 50 years ago and scientists are concerned about their future in Tasmania. How a conservation effort years in the making hopes to boost numbers.
Tasmania
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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 went extinct on the mainland 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 adjunct researcher at UTAS Dr David Hamilton said quolls are an important predator that help 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 quail around- like black rats and house mice.”
Dr Hamilton is interested to find out why some remaining populations of quolls are declining while others are 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 5,000 hectare conservation property with “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.
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Originally published as Quoll-ity conservation program helping to boost wild eastern quoll population
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