Also known as the Tiger Quoll, this particular Quoll resides in bush and dense coastal heathland from Queensland to Tasmania. Or at least it did.
It is the largest native carnivore left on mainland Australia not including Julie Bishop, Zombie Queen (whose diet is mainly limited to scavenging human brains from the corpses of those too slow to outrun her shambling zombie army).
There are two subspecies of Spotted Quoll according to Wikipedia (and if it is in Wikipedia, it is true even if it isn’t).
The bigger and more widely ranging of the two Spotted Quolls, is Dasyurus maculatus maculatus. Maculatus means “it is spotted” so the Dasyurus maculatus maculatus means it is really really spotted spotted.
Here is a Quoll cartoon that I drew. The story in frame three is true ( as far as I know) and I still believe it to be profoundly sad. It always a concern when we domesticate these wild beasts, but who could resist! Sitting here right now, I would like to have a Quoll to talk to. They do look a bit bitey though.
The big ones can be up to 7kg and well over a metre long (including spotty tail).
I don’t think quolls watch telly, but I heard a good story the recently about some New Zealand sheep who liked to watch a particular soap opera.
Spotted Tailed Quoll on a rock (note spotty tail)
I was on the train the other day, and there is this guy who coolly ambles toward the train, not in a hurry mind you, even though the train was about to leave. He was so cool in fact that he got through door but his bag didn’t, it got caught and he had to ride from North Melbourne to Footscray very uncoolly making sure his bag didn’t disappear off into the rail system.
And there is this commuter who watched as this catalogue thing fell out of her newspaper and ignored it and wandered off. I kindly picked it up and handed it to her afterwards. I am possibly the most annoying person on earth. And of course now I can never ever accidentally drop anything.
This last bit doesnt have a lot to do with Quolls except I suppose they are entitled to have less newspaper catalogues in their world than more of them. And I imagine they would not let their tails get caught in the door on the train. At least that is what I imagine.
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I too used to have a fantasy of having a quoll for a pet. I seem to remember, and that’s pretty good for me, that I’d heard a story about someone who had had one, ( I might as well go for broke here, and just say it was on Robyn Williams “Science Show” on Radio Two as it then would have been, hoping all these clauses are stacking up right).
Sort of remembered story, and I wouldn’t make it up, I’m not a creative, goes that said quoll pet-owner was also a cat owner, got cat as kitten and quoll, (rescued I’m thinking) as whatever juveniles of quolls are called.
The cat didn’t like everything not always being about it, and used to, as they say, take out it’s frustrations on the smaller, but growing quoll.
The quoll sucked it up, took it’s lumps, bade (past particle of bide?) it’s time and one day just let the by by-then cat have it.
As you quite rightly surmise, they are capable of being a lot bitey. The cat was never the same.
I think your ready for Antechinus’s’s’s now Mr FirstDog. I think Shane Warne might be a re-incarnation of an Antechinus, or is going to re-incarnated as one. You will undertstand I’m sure, but Hint: Antechinus’s’s’s are crap at spin bowling, and faint heart never won fair maid.
In a way, the antechinus would be an excellent pinup critter for robustly and enthusiastically hetrosexual females of species everywhere.
I’ll get out of your way now. GBW
I think your photo and subsequent cartoon of too-cool train guy ranks as best use of iphone, ever. Love it.
Are quolls as cool as some train commuters? I hope so. I’m sure so. I bet that guy with his bag stuck in the electric door wished he were a little quoll and could disappear under a forest log or tree? His coolness made him look silly…no one can be calm when their mobile phone and curried egg sandwich are flapping in a 100-plus kay wind tunnel. I hope he was reunited with his phone and sando and he got home safely which is more than some quolls can say. If they live outside of Tasmania they’re not protected by the law. And that’s a shame. So can we get all south-bound trains from Queensland to give quoll-free rides so our spotted friends can migrate to the apple isle? That’s my idea for the weeend.
First!
“Juveniles of quolls” are called … well … kittens. Yep. ‘Tis true. Early settlers called quolls ‘native cats’, so they had to call the babies kits.
The spotted-tailed quoll (which is the subject of half this article), which is also called the tiger quoll (as already pointed out) was earlier called the “tiger cat” which is not, to be sure, to be confused in any way with the *Tasmanian* tiger.
The Tasmanian tiger, which is also called the thylacine, has the scientific name Thylacinus cynocephalus, meaning “pouched dog with a dog’s head”, giving the very very spotted sub-species of tiger quoll a run for its money.
In this case, Wikipedia was right. There are two subspecies of spotted-tailed quoll. There are another five species of quoll altogether (that we know of). Three live in Australia and the other two live in New Guinea. They are the Eastern, Western and Northern quolls in Australia, and the Bronze and New Guinea quolls.
The Eastern’s former range overlaps with the spotted-tailed quoll in NSW and Vic and the Eastern used to be called the ‘native cat’ (as opposed to ‘tiger cat’).
The Western is also called ‘Chudditch’ (although I don’t know why), and the smallest – the Northern – well, nobody bothered to give it any other name that I’m aware of, but Cane Toads are giving them a hell of a time at the moment.
Now – with about a million names each, and some of these overlapping the infamous Tassie tiger, you can see why *some* people think that there was a secret conspiracy in the early 1900s to save the thylacine from extinction by shipping a few over Bass Strait and releasing them into Wilson’s Promontory. Truth is – plenty of animals were released there, but sadly I suppose, no tigers.
That is – no *Tasmanian* tigers. “Tiger cats” were recorded, but these, of course, were just the spotted-tailed quoll.
And last on this whirlwind tour of the demise of one of Australia’s earliest reported fauna species – is the contention that the spotted-tailed quoll may well not be the largest native carnivore left on mainland Australia.
Pay a visit to Museum Victoria, or check out the news release here (http://mainlanddevils.com/index.php?module=wiki&page=MediaRelease20070802), to learn about the 5 or 6 Tasmanian *devils* that have been recovered – both live and dead – between 1912 and 1991 – in Victoria.
Where’d *they* come from? No-one knows. Most people think devils died out on the mainland several thousand years ago (and not just a few hundred) so maybe these guys were early vagrants (read 1800s) from Van Diemen’s land?
Getting back to names … the devil’s genus is Sarcophilus – meaning flesh-loving, or corpse-loving. Mmmm … juicy. Where’s my bettong?
And devils aren’t the only one’s doing the vanishing trick, only to re-appear decades later. See here (http://www.wherelightmeetsdark.com/index.php?module=wiki&page=VictorianEasternQuollSpecimens) for recent news on the re-appearance of the Eastern quoll on the mainland after a 45 year absence, again in Victoria.
Do let me know if you know of any Eastern quoll sightings on the mainland – no matter the date. I hope to study them a bit further next year.
Chris.
If you’re not the same so called “chris” as mentioned in the post about the Boodie, and you don’t have any infra-red photos of quoll noses! then who are you, mysterious quoll genius? And have you got any spare quolls lying about?
One and the same Chris; same username. No quolls lying about, although I wish! :) Alive preferably. The link in my boodie comment is to my site; ditto the devils. It kind of began with a fascination for the thylacine and grew down the family tree, so to speak.
Chris.