Spotted-tailed Quoll - first confirmed Sunshine Coast record for 70 years

A Spotted-tailed Quoll has been photographed on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast – the first confirmed record of this endangered species in the region for more than 70 years. The image above is of the quoll, captured by a Sunshine Coast Council survey camera on private property in June this year near Coolum. The extraordinary finding is only now being revealed publicly. The Spotted-tailed Quoll was once considered reasonably common about the Sunshine Coast, especially in the hinterland around the Conondale and Blackall ranges. Its small cousin, the Northern Quoll, also occurred in the region. The rapid decline in quoll populations last century in Queensland coincided with the advance of the introduced cane toad; its toxins are deadly to many native predators. Poison in baits for wild dogs is likely to have also reduced quoll numbers. The quoll photographed recently is believed to have been in dry rainforest thickets near the coast in the Coolum-Yaroomba area, where seemingly little suitable habitat for the species remains. Council officers set up cameras in the area as part of the council’s Coastal Fox Control Program, which operates from Maroochy River north to Peregian Beach. The council said through a spokesperson that the program is one of a number of schemes funded by its Environment Levy to protect native wildlife and habitat. The record was reported to the Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Science. The image below is of a quoll photographed by me last year in New England National Park, NSW.

The University of the Sunshine Coast’s Scott Burnett says there have been no Spotted-tail Quoll records confirmed by specimen or photograph in the Sunshine Coast region since the first half of the 1900s. However, he is aware of several sightings, regarded as reliable, in recent decades from the Bellthorpe, Black Mountain-Cooroy and Widgee areas. Scott Burnett adds: “Potentially the species was quite common and widespread. They used to bother poultry across the Blackall Range and around the Glasshouse Mountains, and no doubt throughout much of the forested Sunshine Coast region.” Regarding the Coolum quoll, observers are surprised that a finding of such significance was not reported earlier by either the Sunshine Coast Council or the Queensland Government. An earlier report may have enabled analysis of such matters as spatial ecology, genetics and breeding status, according to Scott Burnett.

The present advance of the cane toad westward is continuing to wreak havoc in populations of the Northern Quoll (above)in the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. However, in relatively recent times, the species has become more common and widespread in north Queensland, where it was plentiful before the toad invasion. While still generally scarce, the patchy comeback of Northern Quoll in some areas suggests that predators may be able to adapt to the introduced pests, possibly by learning to avoid eating them.

Plenty of suitable habitat for Spotted-tailed Quoll remains in the Sunshine Coast region, protected in extensive national parks and other reserves in the hinterland (like Conondale National Park, above). The Queensland Government is funding efforts to find quolls through Wildlife Queensland’s Quoll Seekers Network, which is using trained dogs in efforts to confirm reported quoll sightings in the Mary River Valley. The network’s Sunshine Coast co-orindator, Amanda Hancock, describes some claimed sightings from members of the public as “anecdotal but very exciting”.

UPDATE 30/6/2021 The site where the Spotted-tailed Quoll was photographed on the Sunshine Coast 12 months ago can now be revealed. It was found In Yaroomba Park, a tiny area of native habitat wedged between Clive Palmer's Coolum Resort to the south and the bustling tourism centre of Coolum to the north. Thanks to Fiona Henshaw for pointing this record out on the Queensland Wildlife Database. Locals have told Fiona that council monitoring at the site since the animal was caught on camera has not turned up further evidence of its presence in the park. This park is surrounded by housing but not too far removed from extensive areas of native habitat including Mt Coolum National Park, Coolum Creek Conservation Park and Yandina Creek Wetland. See comments below for another relatively recent report from the region - this one an animal shot in a chicken pen in 2007 along Old Cylon Road nears its junction with Forestry Road, West Cooroy, in 2007; this area is well-known to local birders.