Spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus)

Description   Signs   Habitat   Ecology   Distribution   Threats   Conservation

Also called … Tiger quoll, tiger cat, yarri (Herbert River District), burrumbil (Mulgrave River and Atherton Tablelands, north Queensland)

Spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus)

Introduction

The spotted-tailed quoll is mainland Australia's largest marsupial carnivore. It was one of the first Australian animals to be encountered by Europeans; Arthur Phillip's party collected one at Port Jackson in 1788. As a top predator, the spotted-tailed quoll probably plays an important role in regulating the populations of other animals that it eats.

There are 3 sub-species of spotted-tailed quoll: Dasyurus maculatus gracilis from the wet tropics of north-eastern Queensland; D. m. maculatus from south-east Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria; and an as-yet unnamed subspecies from Tasmania. The subspecies differ subtly from one another in body size, coat colour and patterning, and genetics.

Spotted-tailed quolls appear to be making a comeback in some areas, notably the western and southern outskirts of Brisbane (see Distribution). You can help Quollseekers Network by helping record sightings of the Spotted-tailed Quoll.

Description

• Longer than 75cm nose to tail tip therefore larger by 3 or 4 times than any of the other five species of quoll.
• Hind foot length greater than 55mm),
• The only quoll species in which spots continue from body onto the tail.

Signs

• Scats left within its habitat
• on prominent rock outcrops, creek beds and escarpment lines.
• have a distinctive musky smell (not the sharp unpleasant smell of fresh cat, dog or fox scats)
• twisted ropey appearance
• often deposited in communal latrine sites, where dozens of scats can accumulate during a season.
• Repeated attacks upon caged poultry (often the first noticeable sign) in which
  • only the head, or parts of the neck consumed on the first night.
  • quolls return to these carcasses day after day until all is consumed.

Habitat

• Forest and woodland including rainforest, and wet and dry sclerophyll forest and woodland.
• Within these habitats, rocky escarpments or boulder piles are favoured.

Ecology

Life history

Quolls live for less than 3-4 years. Females rarely breed after the age of 3 years. This probably explains their threatened status: populations die out if recruitment (i.e. new animals born or moving into the population) is low for as few as 2 or 3 successive years.

Breeding

• Quolls are solitary. However both males and females mate with multiple partners during their brief autumn and winter breeding period.
• Spotted-tailed quolls have a single litter of up to 6 young each year, born between May and August.
• Each litter is sired by more than one father.
• Young are carried in a rudimentary pouch and, when they become too large, they are left behind in a nursery den while the mother forages.
• Young quolls become independent at about 100 days.

Food

• Opportunistic predators and scavengers of anything of animal origin
• Hunt on the ground and in trees for rodents, bandicoots and possums - their main prey
• Females and juveniles eat smaller prey than the larger males, and include more reptiles and birds in their diet than males do
• Prey or carrion can be too large to be eaten in one so quolls come back day after day until the meal is completely consumed (see Signs).

Home range

Quolls are solitary with home ranges of up to 4000ha. Female home ranges are generally much smaller than this, though still several hundred hectares in size.

Dasyurus maculatus sightings

Distribution

• Tasmania and forested areas of South Australian-Victorian border to Cooktown in north Queensland.
• Queensland distribution is patchy along the east coast; quoll hotspots in the Border Ranges, and the mountains and tablelands between Townsville and Cooktown.

Threats

(In order of how serious the threat is.)

1. Land clearing and loss of habitat that comes from this
2. Being killed at poultry yards and accidental road deaths
3. Poisoned by eating cane toads and 1080 baits laid for wild dogs
4. Predation and competition by dogs, cats (that eat quoll young) and foxes (minor threat contributing to overall drop in populations)
5. Predation by wedge-tailed eagles, dingoes, pythons, large forest owls and goannas

Conservation

Status

D. maculatus maculatus (Range: south-east Queensland, NSW, Victoria)
Queensland: Vulnerable (Queensland Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 1994)
National: Endangered (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999)

D. maculatus gracilis (Range: north-east Queensland)
Queensland: Endangered (Queensland Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 1994)
National: Endangered (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999)

Activities

• Draft national recovery plan for the spotted-tailed quoll. The period for public consultation on this recovery plan has closed and the plan is not currently viewable. The Recovery plan proposes a list of actions required to conserve and enhance quoll populations including research, land management requirements and resourcing of actions. When published, this recovery plan will set the framework for Spotted-tailed quoll conservation needs and activities.
• Experiments examining the impacts of 1080-baiting on quoll populations in the Granite Belt are well advanced. These experiments, run by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries have shown that 1080-poisoned meat baits do not pose a serious threat to spotted-tailed quolls (in this area at least). Contact DIPI&F project officer Peter Cremasco (+61 7 46881309) for more information.
• Wildlife Queensland North Beaudesert quoll study.
• Protecting quolls on the Atherton Tablelands. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Tree Kangaroo and Mammal Group, Atherton Tablelands, distributed awareness raising materials, plans for quoll proofing chook pens and fencing materials to residents living in or adjacent to quoll habitat.
• Queensland EPA wild dog baiting guidelines. The Queensland EPA has developed guidelines for quoll-safe wild dog baiting on state-owned lands. Contact your local QPWS office if you want more details on these guidelines.
• Join WPSQ and Quoll Seekers Network in mapping the location of Quolls in Queensland.

More information

Some papers published on Spotted-tailed Quolls

• Belcher, C.A. (1995). Diet of the tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus). Wildlife Research 22(3): 341-357
• Belcher, C.A. (1998). Susceptibility of the tiger quoll, Dasyurus maculatus, and the eastern quoll, D. viverrinus, to 1080-poisoned baits in control programmes for vertebrate pests in eastern Australia. Wildlife Research 25(1) 33-40
• Belcher, C.A. and Darrant, J.P. (2004) Home range and spatial organization of the marsupial carnivore, Dasyurus maculatus maculatus (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in south-eastern Australia. Journal of Zoology 262:3, 271-280
• Belcher, C.A. and Darrant, J.P. (2006) Habitat use by tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in south-eastern Australia. Journal of Zoology 269:2, 183-190
• Belcher, C.A. (2003). Demographics of tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus) populations in south-eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 51(6) 611-626
• Claridge, A.W., Murray, A.J., Dawson, J., Poore, R., Mifsud, G.& Saxon, M.J. (2006). The propensity of spotted-tailed quolls (Dasyurus maculatus) to encounter and consume non-toxic meat baits in a simulated canid-control program. Wildlife Research 33(2) 85-91
• Glen, A.S. & Dickman, C.R. (2006) Home range, denning behaviour and microhabitat use of the carnivorous marsupial Dasyurus maculatus in eastern Australia. Journal of Zoology 268:4, 347-354
• Mansergh, I (1983).The status, distribution and abundance of Dasyurus maculatus (tiger quoll) in Australia, with particular reference to Victoria. Australian Zoologist. 21 (2): 109-122.
• Firestone,K.B., Elphinstone, M.S., Sherwin, W.B., Houlden, B.A. (1999). Phylogeographical population structure of tiger quolls Dasyurus maculatus (Dasyuridae: Marsupialia), an endangered carnivorous marsupial. Molecular Ecology 8 (10): 1613-1625
• Murray, A.J. & Poore, R. M. (2004). Potential impact of aerial baiting for wild dogs on a population of spotted-tailed quolls (Dasyurus maculatus). Wildlife Research 31(6) 639-644

Quoll websites

Quoll species profile published by the Queensland National parks and Wildlife Service.

Species profile prepared by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

Species profile published by the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage

Species profile published by the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service

Queensland-based community quoll research group. Find information on ecology and distribution of Spotted-tailed Quolls here.

List of more quoll references and web-sites

For more information on Wildlife Queensland's activities and campaigns, email or call us on +61 7 3221 0194.

Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland