Eastern quolls always have spots — but their fur is either fawn or black. This is a fawn morph quoll. Credit: Charles J. Sharp.
And this is a black morph eastern quoll. Credit: Charles J. Sharp.
The project's team and volunteers inspecting invertebrate traps to identify food availability for eastern quoll. Credit: The Quoin team.
Quolls will be released on the southern half of the property. Credit: The Quoin team.
The experiment area will span all the way to The Quoin's southern edge at the banks of Tinamirakuna/the Macquarie River. Credit: The Quoin team.
Investigators
Professor Menna Jones
Associate Professor Chris Burridge
Dr Alex Kutt
Rob Brewster
Dr David Hamilton
Dr Rowena Hamer
Dr Darren Turner
Partners
University of Tasmania
WWF Australia
Tasmanian Land Conservancy
The Tasmanian Quoll Conservation Program
Aim
To investigate, and attempt to mitigate, declines of eastern quolls (Dasyurus viverrinus) across the Midlands and East Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania using a series of experimental translocations. This project will also help develop practical and innovative methods for early, in-situ intervention using Tasmanian populations of eastern quolls as a case study.
Background
Conservation translocations are increasingly used in attempts to recover and maintain species in the wild. In addition, translocations can be used to test hypotheses about the causes of population declines when they are otherwise difficult to determine. Monitoring species post-release provides invaluable information on the factors currently acting to limit populations, and their relative influence on the target species. Such intervention is most effective when it occurs in an experimental framework, for example with multiple release sites which vary in the presence and intensity of suspected threats.
The eastern quoll is a prime candidate for early intervention. Although still present throughout Tasmania, annual monitoring has shown concerning declines, with average detections falling by 60% since population peaks in the 1990s. These declines have been attributed to a period of unfavourable climate and associated impacts on quoll’s insect prey. However, updated analyses revealed regional variation in the timing and severity of declines, suggesting that causes may be more complex than previously thought.
Approach
Up to six targeted releases of captive-bred quolls will be used to test our hypothesis, using a combination of camera trap arrays, live-trapping and VHF tracking devices.
How The Quoin is helping
The Quoin is one of 14 sites across the Midlands and East Coast that has had long-term networks of camera traps set up to monitor numbers of eastern quolls, as well as their competitors and potential prey species. Depending on the results of these initial surveys, conservation translocations of eastern quolls will be used to supplement flagging populations, in an attempt to help them bounce back while also working to better understand the underlying causes of their decline.
Significance
Globally, the number of species at risk of extinction is accelerating, and research addressing species decline has never been more important. While existing policy and funding priorities have encouraged a focus on species at imminent risk of extinction, intervention earlier in the trajectory of species decline is typically both cheaper and more effective. Despite widespread recognition of the need for early intervention, practical examples are rare.
This project is particularly significant, in that it aims to establish protocols for early intervention to combat species decline applicable beyond the current case study.