Eastern quolls breeding on Australia’s mainland for the first time in half a century

Rewilding Australia

On a very cold dark winter night in Booderee National Park, researchers made an amazing find – three of our pioneer female quolls had pouch young – a total of 15 baby quolls!

This shows us that some of our captive-bred eastern quolls reintroduced to the park can find shelter, evade predators, find food, and are healthy and happy enough to breed. While this is certainly a hugely significant finding, and a key indicator of success, the program to return the eastern quoll to the wild will take time and effort to establish a self-sustaining population in the wild. We’re confident though that we’ve assembled the strongest possible team to give this ambition the best possible chance.

A huge thank you to the dedicated men and women of Parks Australia, Threatened Species Recovery Hub researchers from the Australian National University, WWF-Australia, Taronga Conservation Society, Shoalhaven Landcare, Devils@Cradle, Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community for their tireless efforts.

Rewilding Australia

How can you help?

Your donation goes a long way. Donations received in 2017 ensured that each and every one of our quolls had a GPS/VHF tracking collar, which meant that we could monitor their welfare by day and night, and modify the pilot trial release as we learnt about the habits of the quolls and the threats to their welfare.

Future donations will help us refurbish the GPS collars for future quolls. Each refurbishment costs $500.

Addressing the Threats

Art meets science! Twenty percent of our quolls (four quolls) were killed by collisions with vehicles.

Since identifying this threat, quolls residing near busy sealed roads were relocated away from the threat. Wildlife photographer Sarah Ash, who has been documenting some of Australia’s most endangered species over the past 12 months via a grant funded project by the Foundation of Australia’s Most Endangered Species (FAME), supplied us with a strikingly beautiful photograph of an eastern quoll, which we incorporated into quoll road signs. Can you help fund a sign? Each sign costs $200. With your donation, you’ll be helping to educate road users and keep our quolls that little bit safer on our roads.

Rewilding Australia would love to hear from you! Contact them at contact@rewildingaustralia.org.au, and visit their website at: Rewildingaustralia.org.au.

For more information on the project, and for how Conjour is helping, check out our In Situ page on Eastern quoll conservation here.

All images in ‘Eastern quolls breeding on Australia’s mainland for the first time in half a century’ are courtesy of Rewilding Australia – All Rights Reserved 2018.