At this year's Your Voice for Your Wildlife Awards, Wildlife Queensland's presentations for outstanding achievements in conservation, the award for best project went to the Far North Quoll Seekers Network, initiated and coordinated by Luke Jackson and Glenn Kvassay. Through their passion for quolls and conservation, Luke and Glenn have generated so much interest in their region and are regularly approached by radio, television and local newspapers for information about quolls. Glenn (left) and Luke (right) have big plans for future quoll projects - so if you live in FNQ, contact them on quoll.fnq@wildlife.org.au

Congratulations guys - you deserve this recognition!

Welcome to our newest Quoll Seekers Network (QSN) members and to everyone who signed up at the Threatened Species Day event in Brisbane's Queen St Mall.

Wildlife Queensland chose this day to launch our new fundraising initiative - the Adopt a Quoll program. Thank you to all of you who have already donated. If you would like to support the continuation of our quoll projects, campaigns and research, your tax-deductible donation of just $60 a year (that's only $5 a month), will help us do just that.

If you're receiving this enews, it means you are on our QSN list. However, some of you may not have completed a membership form. Please click here, fill out the form and email it to us - so you can stay on our list. We don't charge you a fee to join QSN - the completed form is all we ask for!

Ewa Meyer
Projects Manager
ewameyer@wildlife.org.au

Our website is also the place to keep up with the latest news on other WPSQ projects: Qld Glider Network, PlatypusWatch and MangroveWatch.

Field Survey Update

Dr Scott Burnett and research assistant Alina Zwar, along with their team from the University of the Sunshine Coast, have recently completed their surveys in the Conondales, Kenilworth and the Gympie area. Below is the executive summary from their report 'Quolls (Dasyurus maculatus and D. hallucatus) in the southern Mary River catchment, south-east Queensland' :

1. This report outlines the results of community, database and literature and field surveys for spotted-tailed and northern quolls in the southern Mary River catchment.

2. Field surveys entailing over 46000 hours of camera surveillance during three months of continuous camera trapping at four sites failed to locate any quolls.

3. Information from existing databases and new information collected through community liaison resulted in 43 quoll records collated for the study area and adjacent catchments.

4. Most of these records are attributable to the spotted-tailed quoll Dasyurus maculatus. However, when only confirmed records are used, there are almost equal numbers of records of the northern quoll and spotted-tailed quolls.

5. Nineteen recent (i.e. within past 20 years) records of the spotted-tailed quoll originate from throughout the study area, including the fragmented forests of the Cooroy to Pomona area, and the continuous forests of the southern and western parts of the catchment.

6. The four recent records of the northern quoll originated in the Blackhall and Conondale Ranges and the Eerwah Vale area. There is reason to believe that none of these records indicate resident populations of northern quoll in those areas.

7. Both species of quoll appear to have disappeared from much of their former range within the Mary River catchment and evidently now occur patchily and in very low numbers.

8. Further field and community survey is required throughout the catchment and within adjoining catchments (i.e. Brisbane and Burnett River catchments), to elucidate the distribution and conservation status of quolls within the study area.

The full report has been submitted to Wildlife Queensland for the Australian Government's Caring for our Country project 'Protecting Quolls in Queensland Landscapes' 2009.

Quoll-proof poultry pens

We are happy to announce that the final quoll-proof poultry pen grants have now been awarded under the Caring for our Country grant. We were overwhelmed by the large number of applications which was partly due to widespread media interest in this component of our project.  Successful applicants have received their cheques and we look forward to seeing their completed poultry pens in the coming months.

Some applicants sent us photographic evidence of quolls on their land and others indicated plans and materials with which they intend to construct their pens. Congratulations to all the successful applicants - from far north Queensland, Townsville, Gympie and the south-east.

What’s happening?

Queensland is a great spot for quolls - would you like to help us keep it that way? Why don't you...

Adopt a Quoll

By symbolically 'Adopting a Quoll' you will help us fund conservation efforts and research to help the future survival of the endangered quoll.

For more information about our Adopt a Quoll program, and how you can help, read more about it here.

Join a quoll survey

Are you available for a week or two in the first half of December?

If so, would you like to assist with quoll field surveys near Eungella?

The northern quoll is a threatened and declining marsupial in Queensland and elsewhere in its range. QSN has been approached by the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) to see if any of our members would like to volunteer on this project in December or during follow-up field work.

The project is looking at the movement and survivorship of northern quolls near Eungella, about half hour drive west of Mackay. The aim is to catch and radio track quolls as part of an experiment to look at the effects of prescribed burning on quolls.

You'll need to be available for at least one week and preferably two. BYO camping gear. If you think you might be interested, please email us.

Quoll Store

Order your QSN t-shirt

They come in all sizes - to order yours just gve us a call on 3221 0194 and we'll post one straight out.

They cost $15 for QSN members and $20 for everyone else. We'll need to add $5 p&p to your order - so if you can drop into the office or buy in bulk, you'll get a bargain!

Quoll Info kit - order yours online.

QSN Special members price $5.50. Everyone else $10 inc post.