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
Eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Class:
Mammalia
Infraclass:
Marsupialia
Order:
Dasyuromorphia
Family:
Dasyuridae
Subfamily:
Dasyurinae
Tribe:
Dasyurini
Genus:
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 the toads.[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]

  • New Guinean quoll, Dasyurus albopunctatus, New Guinea
  • Western quoll or Chuditch, Dasyurus geoffroii, western Australia
  • Northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus, northern Australia
  • Tiger quoll or Spotted quoll, Dasyurus maculatus, eastern Australia
  • Bronze quoll, Dasyurus spartacus, New Guinea
  • Eastern quoll, Dasyurus viverrinus, Tasmania (formerly mainland eastern Australia)[4]

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

References
Wikispecies has information on: Dasyurus.
  1. Groves, Colin (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.
  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". New York Times. 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
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