Tasmania: Quolls, Potoroos, Golden Brushtail & Pygmy Possum

A visit to Tasmania for double header pelagic trips off Eaglehawk Neck (see following post) provided opportunities to chase some sought after mammals. On an earlier trip, I saw Eastern Quolls while night driving around North Bruny Island but failed to capture an image. I wanted that remedied so after flying from the Sunshine Coast to Hobart, I drove to Bruny Island for another effort. I saw a few Forty-spotted Pardalotes and Dusky Robins (below) – two of Tasmania’s more difficult bird specialties - not far from the ferry terminal along Missionary Road.

It was here that I started spotlighting after sunset. In a paddock about 1km from Missionary Road’s junction with the busy Lennon Road, the first animal I saw was a Long-nosed Potoroo close to the fence. I’d seen this odd-looking animal occasionally in Queensland in times long past – once rescuing one from a Carpet Python - but was happy to snare an image.

In the same paddock were a couple of distant Eastern Quolls. Way too far for photographs, I drove various roads on North Bruny - including the main road to the ferry - seeing a total of at least 50 Eastern Quolls over 3.5 hours. No wonder North Bruny Island is known as Quoll Central. Unfortunately the animals were either skittish, disappearing quickly into roadside scrub, or distant in open paddocks. I had brought polystyrene to moisten and rub against the car windscreen: the high-pitched squeaking noise can elicit responses from animals. The quolls ignored this, however. I had pretty much given up on getting anything other than distant, poor pictures as the evening progressed. I decided to wind things up by returning to the potoroo paddock. Here I tried simply pishing for the first time that night, after again seeing a couple of distant quolls. To my surprise, a torch scan of the paddock revealed about 10-12 quolls, many sitting upright and looking intently my way. More pishing and a dark morph quoll was virtually at my feet. A couple more dark morph quolls then obliged by showing nicely.

I approached some of the more distant pale morph quolls and two or three again were responsive to pishing, allowing close approach. Mission accomplished.

On a more sombre note, I found a freshly killed quoll on the road not far from the ferry. It seemed to me that vehicles were driving far too fast along this road, with some clearly speeding to catch a ferry. This stretch of road is known for its abundance of wildlife; surely slower speed limits are in order, preferably with well-positioned speed bumps.

During the drive I spotted a scarce golden morph of the otherwise abundant Common Brushtail; this animal was quite a beauty. The only other mammal species I saw were Red-bellied Pademelon and Bennett’s Wallaby. I spotted two more Long-nosed Potoroos distantly in roadside paddocks.

After Bruny Island it was off to Eaglehawk Neck for the pelagics and with a night to spare, I checked out the road to Fortescue Bay on the Tasman Peninsula. Using my thermal monocular, I scrutinised the many bushes of flowering banksia along a walking track that runs south from the road just before the national park/camping ground entrance. Eventually I spotted and photographed a gorgeous Eastern Pygmy Possum. I was to see three more pygmy possums later in thick roadside scrub but was unable to get a camera on to them; at least one was a (truly tiny) Little Pygmy Possum. Pygmy possums in Tasmania go into winter torpor so I was by no means certain I’d have any luck, but the weather was pleasantly and unseasonally mild.