By Murray Gibbs, Senior Natural Resource Management Advisor

The Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), also known as the Tiger Quoll, is Australia’s largest carnivorous marsupial on the mainland and is listed as vulnerable in NSW.

These elusive, nocturnal hunters need territories up to 500ha for females and 4000ha for males.

This highlights the importance of our national parks and state forests but also the forests and woodlands in adjacent private land.

Areas on private land with intact bushland, dense ground cover, hollow logs, and rock crevices for denning and hunting, will often be used by quolls that otherwise spend most of their time in public reserves.

Spotted-tailed quolls may look cute, but these fearless hypercarnivores (diet more than 70% meat) can tackle prey twice their size and have the second most powerful bite for their body size of any predatory mammal in the world, after the Tasmanian Devil.

They’ll consume anything from gliders, possums, small wallabies, rats, birds, bandicoots, rabbits, reptiles and insects.

The Spotted Quoll is listed as vulnerable. Photo: Local Land Services.

Once widespread, quoll populations have declined since European settlement due to habitat loss and degradation, competition with foxes and cats, deliberate shooting and trapping in response to chicken predation and roadkill.

Landholders can play a vital role in addressing these threats to quolls by protecting and enhancing quoll habitat on their land, controlling introduced predators and consulting with Local Land Services and the National Parks and Wildlife Service if poultry are being attacked.

Be part of the quoll comeback by incorporating these land management strategies:

• More Bush, More Life - Protect existing bushland, encourage natural regeneration and expand habitat through revegetation where cover is sparse. Use local native species and look for opportunities to connect patches of existing native forest and woodland.
• Don’t “tidy up” that log - Leave as much fallen timber, hollow logs, and rock piles as you can as they contribute to critical denning and hiding spots, as well as being habitat for a vast array of other species that contribute to the overall food chain and biodiversity.
• Control invasive species - Talk to Local Land Services about managing competing feral predators like foxes and cats, and rabbits that degrade natural habitats.

By improving habitat on your land, you are supporting quolls and a whole web of unique and stunning native wildlife.

If you would like more information and advice on supporting biodiversity on your land, and the current educational program, please contact Local Land Services NRM officer by calling 1300 795 299, emailing [email protected] or visiting https://www.lls.nsw.gov.au/regions/south-east.

Murray Gibbs is a Senior NRM Advisor with Local Land Services Agency for the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development