The University of Queensland, in partnership with Brisbane City Council and Department of Defence, has begun a new research project to investigate the presence of the spotted-tailed quoll in the Greater Brisbane region.
The spotted-tailed quoll is the largest carnivorous marsupial in mainland Australia. A nocturnal animal, the quoll lives in forested areas, where it hunts for its prey of small rodents, possums and other animals.
Growing to roughly the same size as a domestic house cat, the spotted-tailed quoll has recently been spotted in and around Brisbane. This marsupial usually lives in forested and semi-urban areas sleeping in logs, trees, ground hollows and small rock caves.
In response to these sightings, UQ researchers have received funding by Brisbane City Council and the Department of Defence as part of their commitment to maintain biodiversity in the region.
UQ researcher Dr Shan Lloyd will lead this research project, which will focus on semi-urban forested areas around Brisbane and the Green corridor known as the Flinders to Greenbank/Karawatha Corridor.
Originally distributed along much of the eastern coast, from South Australia to Northern Queensland, the spotted-tailed quoll used to be a common resident around the outer Brisbane suburbs.
According to Dr Lloyd, the former range of the spotted-tailed quoll has been substantially reduced and the species has become locally extinct in several places.
“Local extinction has occurred as a result of habitat loss, competition with feral animals, and direct conflict with humans,” she said.
“Its smaller relative, the eastern quoll, has already died out on the mainland due to similar processes.
“Few Australians are even aware of the existence of our larger native carnivores such as quolls, yet would be quite upset if one of the big cats such as the cheetah was driven to extinction.”
Research on the quolls will involve cage trapping, remote infrared cameras, hair funnel analysis, scat collection, soil plot analysis, animal footprint tracks and sighting information collected throughout the community education program.
In order to determine how spotted-tailed quolls use the forested segments and corridors, the quolls will be fitted with GPS tracking devices.
“Once we trap quolls within the cage traps, they will be fitted with collars to track their movements using a combination of GPS and VFH radio tracking,” Dr Lloyd said.
The success of this research would rely on the community involvement in the research program, she said.
To protect quolls, Dr Lloyd said it was important the community kept cats and dogs locked up at night, respected Council by-laws on vegetation removal, became involved in community conservation and reported any quoll sightings.
Media: Dr Lloyd (3365 2580) or Susanne Schick (07 5460 1229)
