Western Quoll / Chuditch

Brad Leue/AWC

Quick Facts

  • SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dasyurus geoffroii
  • FAMILY: Dasyuridae (Dasyurids)
  • NATIONAL CONSERVATION STATUS: Vulnerable
  • STATE CONSERVATION STATUS: Vulnerable in WA: Endangered in SA
  • SURVIVING POPULATION: Estimated at up to 15,000 individuals
Releasing a quoll Brad Leue/AWC

What is AWC doing?

AWC protects the Western Quoll at Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary using a comprehensive feral predator control program, which sees feral cat and fox numbers controlled using trapping and baiting.

In May 2023, AWC also reintroduced the Western Quoll to Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary in the WA Wheatbelt. Assisted by WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), 11 quolls were sourced from Julimar State Forest and released outside Mount Gibson’s 7,800 hectare feral predator-free fenced area. Another 33 quolls were sourced from Greater Kingston National Park and Perup Nature Reserve in June 2023, and translocated to the sanctuary.

Threats To Wildlife Richard Ali Western Quoll © Richard Ali/Invasive Animals CRC

Threats to the Western Quoll

Predation by feral cats and foxes is a serious threat to the persistence of Western Quolls. Habitat modification is likely to have contributed to the decline of Western Quolls through the combined influences of land clearing, inappropriate fire regimes and grazing by both stock and feral herbivores. Illegal shooting and poisoning is also likely to be partly responsible for the disappearance of Western Quolls from heavily populated and agricultural areas.

Vulnerable Jane Palmer

Description

Western Quolls are the size of a domestic cat and are Western Australia’s largest endemic carnivore. Males are 1.3 kg, females 0.9 kg. Individuals have brown fur with numerous conspicuous white spots on their back and sides. They also have a black brush on the tail, extending from half-way down their tail to the tip.

Ecology

Western Quolls are solitary animals with very large home ranges; a reflection of their carnivorous feeding habits. Their diet is made up of large invertebrates and a variety of reptiles, birds and mammals (up the size of bandicoots and parrots). Animals are primarily nocturnal, hunting at night and sheltering in hollow logs or burrows during the day. Young are born between May and September and are independent at about six months of age. Individuals become sexually mature at one year of age and usually do not live beyond three years.

Range and Abundance

Western Quolls were once present in a wide variety of habitats across nearly 70% of the Australian mainland. Following European settlement, their range contracted dramatically. They are now found only in the south-western corner of Western Australia and even within this region their distribution is patchy. Western Quolls are most abundant in areas of contiguous Jarrah forest with small, isolated subpopulations in the WA Wheatbelt and Goldfields regions. The species disappeared from the Swan Coastal Plain and surrounds by the 1930s but there has been some recent evidence of a return to these areas.

Sanctuaries Where You Can Find the Western Quoll

© Wayne Lawler/AWC
Western Australia

Paruna

Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary, just outside of Perth, forms an important wildlife corridor along the Avon River, between Walyunga and Avon...

© Brad Leue/AWC
Western Australia

Mt Gibson

Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary protects a large area of diverse habitat in the south of Western Australia. As the site...

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