Spotted-tailed Quoll
Who am I?
I’m a cat-sized spotty marsupial, closely related to the Tasmanian Devil
I’m a predator that eats anything from insects and eggs to small mammals, frogs, lizards and birds and even larger mammals like rabbits and possums!
Like the Tassie Devil, I’m also a big fan of dead things, and am good at cleaning up road kill.
Along with my close relative, the Eastern Quoll, I used to live all throughout the Melbourne area. But we haven’t been seen here for decades. Maybe we could come back one day?
Find me in the city!
Try me out at home
- Scan the QR code
- This will open the Instagram filter
- Point your camera at your surroundings
- Tap to place me in the space, pinch to change my scale or walk around me, I’m 3D!
- Take a photo or video and share your vision for a wilder neighbourhood on Instagram using #wildheartmelb (if in Melbourne) or #wildheartcities if elsewhere
Meet me
See through my eyes
Listen to my world
What can I do to help quolls?
While there are no longer quolls in Melbourne, there are still a few native mammals that survive here, and they face many of the same threats quolls do.
We are lucky to still have Ring-tailed Possums, Brush-tailed Possums, Grey-headed Flying-foxes and Rakali (native water-rat) in the centre of town, and Echidnas, Platypus, Kangaroos and Wallabies in the outer suburbs, not to mention smaller native rodents and marsupials!
Here are some big things you can do to care for native mammals in the city
- Preserve big trees so that possums have somewhere to live (reducing the likelihood of them ending up in your roof!)
- Drive carefully between dusk and dawn
- Allow animals to share our parks and gardens – create a wildlife-friendly garden and protect special plants with animal-safe deterrents and netting, and ask your council to create and maintain more biodiverse green spaces.
- Be a responsible pet owner – always keep your pets indoors or in an enclosure when at home, and under control when out and about so that they aren’t tempted to chase or kill wildlife.
- Celebrate the native mammals that still live around us! Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world, so we need to love and care for what is left. That means encouraging others to notice, connect with and appreciate the native mammals around them and learn to live beside them. Word up your neighbours, friends and family on wildlife-friendly netting and how to keep wildlife and pets safe.
Wildlife Victoria has an enormous resource of fact sheets and how-to videos explaining how to care for wildlife in the city, including how to avoid hitting animals on roads, how to live with possums and how to report a wildlife emergency.
Safe Cat Safe Wildlife, an initiative by Zoos Victoria and the RSPCA, is a great place to learn how to spoil your cat and keep wildlife safe too.
A collaboration between Remember The Wild and Eggpicnic.
Supported by the City of Melbourne.
