AY Honors/Marsupials/Answer Key
Quolls (genus Dasyurus) are carnivorous marsupials, native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. Adults are between 25 and 75 cm long, with hairy tails about 20-35 cm long. Females have six to eight nipples and develop a pouch—which opens towards the tail—only during the breeding season, when they are rearing young. Quolls live both in forests and in open valley land. Though primarily ground-dwelling, they have developed secondary arboreal characteristics. Their molars and canines are strongly developed.
The eastern quoll (or native cat, as it is sometimes called) has two color phases--ginger-brown or black, both with white spots on the body.
Eastern quolls once occured on mainland Australia, with the last sighting occuring in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse in the early 1960s. They are now considered extinct on the mainland, although some recent sightings in the New England region of northern New South Wales suggest that the species may still survive.
The species, fortunately, is widespread and locally common in Tasmania. It is found in a variety of habitats including rainforest, healthland, alpine areas, and scrub. However, it seems to prefer dry grassland and forest mosaics which are bounded by agricultural land, particularly where pasture grubs are common.
Eastern quolls can be seen in all but the Asbestos Range National Park and the Arthur River area. They are common in Mount Field National Park.
Male eastern quolls are about the size of a small domestic cat averaging 6 decimeters in length and 1.3 kilograms in weight; females are slightly smaller.
The northern quoll is a beautiful but deadly creature. A close cousin of the chuditch, it is found throughout the state's orth. It belongs to a group of native marsupial predators known as the native cats or quolls. They are all well-equipped with razor-sharp teeth and claws. The northern quoll is particularly aggressive and noted for its "pugnacious disposition."
The northern quoll is a beautiful animal to behold. It is gray-brown above with large white spots, and cream to white below. It is the smallest member of the genus Dasyurus, which also includes the chuditch, spotted quoll, and eastern quoll. It is the only quoll with an unspotted tail. It is the smallest, most arboreal, and most aggressive of all the quolls.
The northern quoll is found in a disjunct range throughout northern Australia including the Pilbara and Kimberley regions in WA. It is generally found in treed habitats, preferring broken, rocky country or open, eucalypt forest withen 150 kilometers of the coast.
Northern quolls tend to be most successful in feeding and breeding near creeklines. They have a ready supply of water and often have dens in hollow creekside eucalypts. They are also known to spend some time on the tops of termite mounds.
The diet of the northern quoll includes small mammals such as dunnarts, rodents, and antechinuses, as well as reptiles, invertebrates, and fruit.
The average lifespan of adults is 2 years. Females have no true pouch, but during the breeding season in May, the area around the 6-8 teats becomes enlarged and surrounded by a flap of skin. Mating occurs in late June and 1-8 young are born in July. Very few females carry an infant on every available teat, with the average litter size geing 6. Young are carried for 8-10 weeks.
Taxonomy
Within the genus Dasyurus, the following species exist:
- Dasyurus albopunctatus — New Guinean Quoll, New Guinea
- Dasyurus geoffroii — Chuditch or Western Quoll, western Australia
- Dasyurus hallucatus — Northern Quoll, northern Australia
- Dasyurus maculatus — Spotted Quoll (Tiger Quoll), eastern Australia
- Dasyurus spartacus — Bronze Quoll, New Guinea
- Dasyurus viverrinus — Eastern Quoll, Tasmania
