Quoll

genus of mammals From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quoll
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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.

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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]

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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]

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References

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