Sunshine Coast Birds

Birding and other wildlife experiences from the Sunshine Coast and elsewhere in Australia - and from overseas - with scribblings about travel, environmental issues, kayaking, hiking and camping.

Wednesday 14 October 2020

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.

8 comments:

  1. Surely this has implications for the high density development planned for Yaroomba?

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  2. Beautiful,should be given all help to survive and multiply.

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  3. quollSpotted tailed quoll has been recorded in Top Forestry Road
    Northern Quolls and Spotted tailed quolls are known to occur in the area. Spotted tail quolls are listed as endangered under the EPBC Act and are vulneralbe under the Nature Conservation Act in Queesland. A survey by Dr Scott Burnett ( a quoll biologist now working at Sunshine Coast University) in 2009 for the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland (see p 24 of the report available online here called Quolls in the Southern Mary River Catchments, SEQ) , has identified a quoll sighting in 2006-2007 in very close proximity to the location of the proposed West Cooroy broiler farm.
    The quoll sighting is number 29 ( see the appendices at the end of the report on p24) and the spotted tail quoll sighting is from Old Ceylon Rd before the turn off to Top Forestry Rd West Cooroy. The quoll was shot in a chook pen. Other quoll sightings have been reported north and south of this location in the same report by Dr Scott Burnett. Spotted tail quolls are highly mobile and can move between 6-21 km in one night. This means that camera surveillance and other methods of recording quoll sightings have not been so successful.
    Spotted tail quolls are at a greater risk of road kill because they will scavenge roadkill from roadsides. The increased heavy vehicle movement associated with the proposed chicken farm places quolls and other wildlife species at a greater risk of injury and death. Spotted tail quolls are federally endangered under the EPBC Act and this proposed MCU needs to be urgently referred to the Federal Government as the potential impacts on the spotted tail quoll is a Matter of National Significance.

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    1. Thanks Rodney very interesting, I didn't know about the West Cooroy record

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  4. I thought I heard a barn owl in my tree but when I went outside I found what looked like a black possum and spotted possum fighting. I recorded the sound because it was so odd. After doing a bit of research on this spotted possum, I now think it could have been a quoll attacking the possum, because they sound similar to barn owls.

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  5. I live in Twin Waters , in 2017 and 2018 I spotted a Quoll in the trees near our property. Having lived in PNG I know the difference between a possum and a quoll. I advised some lovely folk from the conservation team at Sunshine Coast Council at the time. Recently I heard one again and investigated and yep it’s back. They do travel a great distance but this one was exceptionally healthy

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    1. Could you let me know please if you come across it again 0423 768919

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