Importance Score: 65 / 100 🔴
In a collaborative effort to restore native wildlife, the University of Sydney and Aussie Ark recently released 15 endangered eastern quolls (Dasyurus viverrinus) into a protected bushland location. These medium-sized, nocturnal marsupials, known for their bushy tails and distinctive white spots, were introduced to a sanctuary on the Scots College’s Bannockburn property, near Nowra along the southern coast of New South Wales, Australia. This marks a significant milestone in efforts to rewild the eastern quoll population on the Australian mainland.
A Welcome to Country
Before the eastern quolls were released, Jerrinja tribal leader Ron Carberry performed a Welcome to Country ceremony as the marsupials explored their new domain. A Welcome to Country is a traditional Indigenous custom that Traditional Owners give, or Indigenous people who have authorization from Traditional Owners give, when they welcome visitors to their Country.
Carberry reflected on a time when his ancestors coexisted with this “magic little animal.” He added, “What is happening today is a magnificent moment. It’s about healing Country.”
Rewilding Efforts for Eastern Quolls
This reintroduction signifies a crucial advancement in revitalizing a species that vanished from mainland Australia over six decades ago. Today, eastern quolls primarily inhabit eastern Tasmania, thriving in farmlands, open grasslands, dry forests, woodlands, coastal scrub, and alpine heathland. According to Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, quolls are “opportunistic hunters that take live prey such as insects, small mammals, birds and reptiles, and scavenge.”
Extinction and Conservation
Eastern quolls faced extinction on the Australian mainland primarily due to factors like disease, poisoning, and predation by introduced foxes. Reintroduction initiatives, such as this one, are being carried out in areas with effective introduced predator management. Aussie Ark has previously established the 400-hectare Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary. Ten of the eastern quolls released at Bannockburn were born and raised within this sanctuary.
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Scientific Monitoring and Research
Thomas Newsome from the University of Sydney’s Global Ecology Lab emphasized the importance of rigorous scientific research to enhance the rewilding success of the eastern quoll. The research team intends to employ various methods to gather data and observe the quolls:
- Very-high frequency (VHF) radio and global positioning system (GPS) tail transmitters
- A camera observation network consisting of 54 camera traps
- Quarterly cage trapping
Understanding the Ecosystem Role
“This long-term research project provides us with a wonderful opportunity not only to establish a meta-population of eastern quolls on mainland Australia but also deep-dive into the ecology of the species,” Newsome stated. “We need to better understand the quolls’ role in an ecosystem from which it has been absent from for almost 70 years.”
The SE NSW Eastern Quoll Hub
“The release is another powerful step toward one day rewilding the eastern quoll to the mainland of Australia,” added Aussie Ark Operations Manager Dean Reid. “It follows last year’s historic release of our Eastern Quolls into Booderee Botanical Gardens, when Federal Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek personally released one of our quolls.”
The Bannockburn site will be integrated into the SE NSW Eastern Quoll Hub, a network of sanctuaries participating in a genetic metapopulation management plan. This plan aims to secure the long-term genetic and demographic robustness of eastern quoll populations within protected, predator-managed habitats.