Quoll

Quolls (genus Dasyurus) are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and Papua New Guinea.[1] There are six species of quoll, four in Australia and two in New Guinea.

Quoll
Dasyurus viverrinus.jpg
Eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus)
Scientific classification
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Dasyurus

The name dasyurus means "hairy tail".[2] Adults are between 25 and 75 cm long, with hairy tails about 20-35 cm long (about the size of a cat). Like all marsupials, females have a pouch to carry their babies.

Quolls are threatened by eating toxic cane toads, but a University of Sydney project is teaching them not to eat them.[3]

The family Dasyurini to which quolls belong also includes the Tasmanian devil, antechinuses, the kowari, and mulgaras.[1]

Quoll species

In the genus Dasyurus, these species exist:[1]

There is at least one fossil species from the Pliocene, that is D. dunmalli.[5]

Quoll Media

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds) (ed.). Mammal Species of the World (3rd edition ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); |edition= has extra text (help); |editor= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  2. Serena, M.; Soderquist, T. (1995). "Western Quoll". In Strahan, Ronald (ed.). The Mammals of Australia. Reed Books. pp. 62–64.
  3. "Taste training for northern quolls". Australian Geographic. Archived from the original on 2010-04-17. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
  4. Erica Rex (November 23, 2008). Hope for Tasmanian devils, a decimated species. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/23/MNRD146AD2.DTL. Retrieved 2008-12-12. "Another carnivorous marsupial indigenous to Tasmania, the quoll has a white-dotted reddish to dark chocolate brown coat and is about the size of a small house cat.". 
  5. /deuterostoma/chordata/synapsida/metatheria/notometatheria/dasyuromorphia/dasyurinae.html