Quoll

Hello everyone here we are at another Aussie Wednesday and this week's creature is the Quoll.

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Another two species are known from fossil remains in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits in Queensland.

Once found across much of south-eastern Australia, the eastern quol is now found only in Tasmania. Disease is thought to be responsible for a sudden crash in mainland populations in the early 1900s, although foxes, cats, rabbits, poisoning and persecution have all been linked to their decline.

Quolls are related to Tasmanian devils. Both are carnivorous marsupials in the family Dasyuridae

A baby quoll, is called a pup, it is the size of a grain of rice. Up to 18 quolls are born in each litter, but only six survive the first two weeks. The survivors stay in their mother's pouch for eight weeks, suckling on one of the mother's six teats for milk.

Quolls eat mainly insects, birds, frogs, lizards, snakes, small mammals and fruit. Quolls also eat carrion (dead animals), and sometimes scavenge around campsites and rubbish bins.

As of May 2016, a final release of 15 quolls from Western Australia was carried out in the Flinders Ranges, with a total population of 150. About half of this population was born locally. Monitoring of the population is planned for an additional two years.