Adventures
at Quoll Hilton
Matt Cole
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In the last issue of PAWS you read about Al Glen’s Spotted-tailed Quoll survey. The radio tracking is now complete, and in this article Matt Cole, one of Al’s volunteers, shares his adventures with the tiger quolls with us. Matt also took all of the photos except the one of himself. After months of trying to find the time to join Al Glen on one of his field trips to survey the endangered Spotted-tailed Quolls, I managed to join him and several volunteers on a ten-day trip in July. Our volunteer group met Al at Sydney University on Saturday to make the trip to the study site, Chaelundi State Forest. About 10 hours later we rolled into the state forest hut, affectionately known as the Chaelundi Hilton and were briefed on the schedule for the next few days, how to handle the animals and tasks to be carried out during the day and evenings. Everything sounded great until we discovered that after the first Sunday’s late start of 6 a.m., the normal start time was up at 3am and on the road radio tracking by 4am. On that first lazy Sunday we set the traps with rather dubious, rancid and rotting chicken wings and collected several scats along the trap lines at latrine sites frequented by quolls. A volunteer’s day starts at 3 am 3am Monday morning and alarms were sounding in the Hilton. Breakfast is not an option at that hour so we just downed coffees and loaded into the 4WD. The study site was several kilometres from the Hilton, and if the coffee didn’t wake us the bumpy ride sure helped. Once at the site Al pulled over and dialled in the frequency for radio tracking our first target. Each day four quolls, two cats and one fox were to be located. Not all were recorded each day but generally all quolls and cats were accounted for and locations found. Each day tracking comprised of locating our four Quolls, two cats and the fox that had been previously collared in the mornings. Then all traps were checked for captures and breakfast provided if Quoll present. After our own breakfast we returned to process the animals. This involved microchipping new quolls or noting the microchip numbers of previously captured quolls, weighing the animals, checking for mites, mange and general health, measuring their hind feet, taking DNA samples and checking pouches. How to blow away a quoll To get a quoll out of the cage we placed a calico bag at the exit and coaxed the quoll in by tilting the cage or blowing sharply on its rump. Al did most of initial handling. He tried to position them with the muzzle into a corner of the bag and place a hand over the shoulders while a volunteer would secure the hindquarters. Then we would roll her or him over and peel the bag back to take measurements. Despite due care Al did get nipped once during this procedure, which is not something anyone would really like. Pound for pound these quolls have twice the bite force of many larger predators and could easily crush the bone of finger. The quolls are surprisingly strong. On the most part, however, they cooperated and almost seemed to roll over and accept the process quietly. The females with pouch young were not so accommodating though. Once all quolls were processed we would break for morning tea and then saddle up for more radio tracking. This time we tracked the quolls to den sites where they were resting through the day, ever vigilant for more scats and new latrines. Scat collection is a means to determine what quolls are preying upon when not being fed rancid chicken wings. Scats were also collected from dogs, foxes and cats, so Al could see if these species are competing for the same prey with quolls. Highlights of a successful trip The fox Penfold and the two cats Daz and Sasha proved to be a bit trickier to home in on as these guys tend to have greater ranges than the female quolls, and the cats lived in very difficult terrain. The afternoon sessions of tracking were by far the most time consuming and we ended our day’s work by 5pm. We would all then flop in front of the Bush TV and get the generator going, have a beer or wine, prepare dinner and be in bed by 8pm. During the study days we got very familiar with regular captures of several individuals like Big Kev, Charlotte Kiz and Trish, each with distinct features and behaviours. It was also just great to be in such an awesome part of Australia and learning about quolls and ecology. By far the greatest point for us volunteers was finding Charlotte in a new den site with her face framed by the entrance in a massive eucalypt and nestled on a bed of grasses and bracken. We spent the final day closing the traps and cleaning the Hilton for its next guests. On this trip we caught and
release 11 quolls, some of them several times. Over the whole study Al
had over 300 captures.
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