Closely related to Tasmanian devils and the extinct Tasmanian tiger, the spotted-tailed quoll (also known as tiger quoll) is the second largest carnivorous marsupial in Australia. And like its relatives, they are ferocious hunters. The quoll boasts one of the strongest bites of any predator in the world; something they need given their preference for dining on medium-size prey including small wallabies, possums and bandicoots. They are also opportunistic scavengers, using their strong jaws to rip apart dead and decaying flesh.

Once widely distributed, spotted-tailed quolls are now only found from southern Queensland through to south-western Victoria and Tasmania. Their habitats include forests, woodlands, coastal heathlands and rainforests, and they are occasionally seen in open country or on grazed areas and rocky outcrops. As one of the mainland’s apex (at the top of the food chain) predators, quolls play an important role in these ecosystems by keeping populations of their prey species in check.

The quolls characteristic white spots help to break up their outline in dappled light during the night and daytime, providing them with camouflage as they prowl across the forest floor. Although they tend to hunt mainly on the ground, quolls are excellent climbers known to prey on roosting birds and feast on possums in their hollows. They are not lazy animals, with some intrepid individuals recorded moving several kilometres in a single night and have large territories, with the home range of males averaging between 750 and 3,000ha.

No bigger than a grain of rice when born, quolls, like other animals in the marsupial family, keep their young in a pouch. The pups stay there until they are large enough to be left behind in the den – which comprise rock shelters, small caves, hollow logs and tree hollows – while their mother forages. By adulthood, the cat-size females reach an average weight of 1.5-2kg and males around 3kg. With some of their prey tipping the scales at 5kg, this is a species that punches above its weight!

Sadly, this once abundant marsupial is threatened across mainland Australia due to loss, fragmentation and degradation of their habitat including den sites, competition and predation by foxes and cats and human-wildlife conflict. We are working with our partners to collect important information on the quolls, restore and reconnect their forest habitat and raise awareness of the important role these unique and canny predators play.