Near-extinct animals get a second chance of survival

Do you know what a quoll is? No? Well, it’s a carnivorous and nocturnal marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea and is roughly the size of a house cat. That being said, a kind of quoll called the eastern quoll (nicknamed the eastern native cat) that was only indigenous to the Australian continent had become extinct long back in 1963.  

However, in a major plot twist or what is being deemed as a “globally significant moment”, ten eastern quolls have recently been released into a New South Wales nature reserve, giving these almost extinct species another chance at survival.  

Their new home is the 400-hectare Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary in Aussie Ark’s Upper Hunter region. This not only boosts the population of eastern quolls, making it the largest in a long time, but also makes it a watershed moment in wildlife conservation efforts. It was a direct result of Tasmanian Quoll Programme that is largely focused on keeping these marsupials in the wild. This programme was launched five years ago and aimed at breeding and rewilding – both of which were a huge success.  

In case you are wondering what had led to the disappearance of the species – it was a result of feral cats and foxes feeding on their solitary nature. But now, being released into the wildlife reserve, they are protected by special fences that would keep out invasive predators.  

Earlier, similar efforts were taken to conserve severely endangered quolls. But now, more than 63 of them exist in the same sanctuary, with numbers rapidly on the rise. There are three steps that are religiously followed. At first, an endangered species is identified. Next, they are bred to the point of building up an insurance population and finally releasing the species back to the wild where it belongs, when their numbers are promising.  

Interestingly, quolls aren’t the only creatures that have been returned from extinction. In fact, species like Tasmanian devils, long-nosed potoroos, rufous bettongs and brush-tailed rock wallabies have all been successfully saved, that too by releasing them in the same reserve. How great is that!  

What you may not have known about eastern quoll is that, unlike five other types of quolls, it has only four toes on the hind feet minus the hallux. They also have tapering snout, short legs and erect ears. They are usually black in colour with white spots all over.