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TIGER QUOLL FACTS |
Description
The Tiger Quoll is reddish brown or dark brown above with white spots. The only Quoll with a spotted tail.
It spends most of its time on the ground, but is a good climber. Populations have decreased in recent years - dogs, foxes, land-clearing and Cane Toad poisoning are the main reasons for its disappearance.
Other Names
Spotted-tailed Quoll, Tiger Cat
Size
about 40-70cm long, with a tail about 45cm long. Males are larger than females. It is about the size of a cat.
Habitat
wet eucalypt forest and rainforest
Food
small birds, small mammals, earthworms and insects.
Breeding
Nest in hollow log or rock crevice. Average litter is 5, with gestation of 21 days. The young are weaned about 7 weeks.
Range
east coast of Australia including Tasmania
Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Notes
When spotted-tailed quolls and backyard chicken runs were more common, the quoll had a reputation as a poultry killer. One of the mysteries surrounding these raids on chicken runs related to how the quoll would often kill many more chickens than it could possibly eat. Why would a quoll do this? One argument is that the quoll as a predator is simply behaving naturally and is responding to the presence of a prey animal that cannot escape. Also, the prey animal may lack the instinctive reaction to escape, making it little more than a sitting duck triggering the predator to go on catching and killing prey. The result is that instead of the quoll catching, killing and eating a single chicken (while any others escape), it goes on catching and killing as long as there are chickens present to trigger that behaviour. This situation has also been observed where other wild predators encounter domesticated prey. ... from Queensland Environmental Protection Agency - www.epa.qld.gov.au
Conservation Status
The conservation status in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals is "vulnerable".
Classification
| Class: | Mammalia | | Order: | Dasyuromorphia | | Family: | Dasyuridae | | Genus: | Dasyurus | | Species: | maculatus | | Common Name: | Tiger Quoll |
Relatives in same Genus
Eastern Quoll (D. viverrinus)
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