Even hybrids, with just one toad-savvy parent, showed the same behavior. Quolls with two parents showing “toad-smart” behavior were far less likely to try a non-lethal toad leg than other quolls were. Some quolls, however, are averse to munching on the toads, and a recent study has found this is likely a heritable trait. Quoll populations fell by 95 percent after 1935 when toxic cane toads were introduced to Australia. Northern quolls are also endangered, having fallen prey to their prey. (Related: Has This Aussie Trio Finally Found the Tasmanian Tiger?) Quolls are also more distantly related to the extinct thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, says Nicholas Dexter, senior project officer at Booderee National Park in New South Wales, where quolls were recently reintroduced. ![]() Both are carnivorous marsupials in the family Dasyuridae. “I watched a quoll lead a devil on a merry dance around a carcass-the devil would chase it away-only to beat the devil back to the food to steal a few bites each time,” he says.Īnd why not? It’s fun to mess with your cousins, and quolls are related to Tasmanian devils. Scientists attribute disease, predators, and habitat loss for their disappearance more than 50 years. These small, furry marsupials were moved from Tasmania to Booderee National Park. Quolls have even been known to snatch food from a Tasmanian devil, says Wade Anthony, founder of the Devil’s Cradle animal sanctuary in Tasmania, where some of the recently released quolls were bred.įor the first time in five decades, the eastern quoll has been introduced back into the wild. Quolls will eat insects or carrion, and will hunt rats, rabbits, birds, and lizards-even animals larger than themselves. Quolls are nocturnal, mostly snoozing the day away in their dens and foraging at night.Īnd they aren’t picky eaters. Their charms aren’t very visible in the wild, though. (See “ Endangered Eastern Quoll Babies Seen For The First Time In Decades.”) With ears like a lemur, a mouse face, a cat-like body and white polka dots on their thick fur, quolls certainly have a signature look. Meet the Aussie natives that are as bold as they are beguiling. ![]() In March 2018, 20 quolls were transplanted from Tasmania to the mainland of Australia, where they went extinct 50 years ago. You can’t miss it in eastern quolls, adorable little spotted marsupials that are native to Australia. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but everyone knows “cute” when they see it.
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