Proceedings of the WWF-Australia Quoll Workshop

BACKGROUNDAustralia has the worst rate of mammal extinctions in the world. Since European settlement at least 10% of Australia’smammals have become extinct.Quolls are mainland Australia’s largest surviving marsupial carnivore. When Captain Cook recorded ‘quolls’ as theirAboriginal name in 1770, it is thought that most of Australia was inhabited by at least one quoll species. However, sincethen quolls have declined in the wild.There are four species of quoll found in Australia; the northern quoll, the eastern quoll, the western quoll, and the spottedtailedquoll. In New Guinea there are two species of quoll; the New Guinea quoll and the bronze quoll. All quoll speciesare listed on the IUCN Red List.Under Federal legislation in Australia, three of the four species are listed as being threatened, the spotted-tailed quoll,western quoll and northern quoll. The fourth species, the eastern quoll, is not currently listed as being nationally threatened,however its status is discussed in greater detail during this workshop. Further information on the current distribution ofall quoll species can be found in the Current Status and Distribution Updates of the Theme 1 Panel Discussion from thisworkshop.The following recovery teams and plans have been established for each quoll species;• Northern Quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus• National Recovery Plan in preparation, contact Brydie Hill, TSN, or Simon Ward, NRETA• No formalised recovery team• Eastern Quoll,• No recovery plan under development• No recovery team• Spot-tailed Quoll, Dasyurus maculatus (Spotted-tailed Quoll, Tiger Quoll)• National Recovery Plan in preparation, contact Gary Backhouse, DSE• ACT Action Statement (2005)• Victorian Action Plan (2003)• No formalised recovery team• Western Quoll, Dasyurus geoffroii (Chuditch)• Review of National Recovery Plan in preparation, contact Keith Morris, WA DEC• Expired National Recovery Plan (1992-2001)• No formalised recovery team• New Guinea Quoll, Dasyurus albopunctatus• No recovery plan or team established• Bronze Quoll, Dasyurus spartacus• No recovery plan or team establishedWWF-Australia and the Threatened Species Network (TSN) invited conservation managers and researchers from all overAustralia and New Guinea to attend the first ever quoll workshop, 15-16 April, 2008,The aim of the quoll workshop was to initiate steps towards achieving coordinated implementation of quoll conservationin Australasia and to ensure that appropriate actions are being undertaken to conserve all quoll species. The workshophelped to set priorities and improve communication and cooperation in order to pursue this first step.4