The ACT Conservator has invited community comment on a new plan to protect the vulnerable Spotted-tailed Quoll.
The Conservator, Ian Walker said the quoll was the largest marsupial carnivore on mainland Australia but had almost disappeared from the ACT.
He said it played an important ecological role as a high order predator.
“Spotted-tailed Quolls are incredibly rare in the ACT, with an average detection rate of one animal per year since 2005,” Mr Walker said.
“(And that was) usually either through reported sightings or road kill.”
Hes aid the quolls were more active in the winter breeding season, so cameras had been placed at potential sites of activity but had yet to record anything.
“We would also like the public to report any sightings,” he said.
Mr Walker said the quoll’s numbers had declined since European settlement possibly due to the introduction of strychnine baiting in the Canberra district in 1861.
“Today their greatest threats include destruction of habitat, fire, competition and predation from introduced carnivores, and road mortality,” he said.
“We hope that one day the ACT can be a healthy breeding ground for quolls, so their strongholds in the region are not just limited to Kosciuszko National Park,” Mr Walker said.
He said Spotted-tailed Quolls were different from the Eastern Quolls being reintroduced to the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary.
“Spotted-tailed Quolls are larger and have spots on their tail as well as their body,” he said.
More information, including the chance to make a comment, can be accessed at this PS New link.
Submissions close 29 October.
