Spotted-tailed Quoll
Spotted-tailed Quoll
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| COMMON NAME: | Spotted-tailed Quoll |
| LATIN NAME: | Dasyurus maculatus |
| MEANING: | Dasyurus - "hairy-tail"; maculatus - "spotted" |
| FOOD: |
Scavenges dead cattle, sheep and other mammals. Hunts for small mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. |
| HABITAT: | Wet and dry forests and rainforests. |
| LOCALITY: | NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC |
| LENGTH: | Body: 350-760 mm Tail: 340-420 mm |
| WEIGHT: | 2-7 kg |
| BEHAVIOUR: |
Active mainly at night, they sleep in hollow trees or logs, or in rock crevices by day. On cool winter days they often bask in the sun or forage. Dens are shared by family groups and defended aggressively by both male and female. The male may bring food to the suckling mother. Although mainly terrestrial, they are agile climbers and run with a bounding pace, otherwise their movements are slow and deliberate, sniffing regularly for signs of food. They forage alone, scavenging and hunting opportunistically, killing their prey in a relatively clumsy fashion by biting the back of the neck and head. |
| DEVELOPMENT: |
Sexually mature at 1 year, they breed from April to August, and copulation may last 8 hours. Females have a shallow rear-opening pouch partially covering six teats. Five young are usually born some 21 days after mating and attach to the teats for about 7 weeks. They are then left in the den while the mother forages, venturing out at 14 weeks, becoming independent at 5 months. |
| DESCRIPTION: |
This ferocious, cat-sized carnivorous marsupial has a powerful body with rich reddish-brown to olive brown fur marked with white spots of various sizes on the back and tail; it is pale creamy-yellow below. The hindfeet have 5 toes with sharp curved claws and ridged pads. The face is relatively short with a squat, blunt muzzle. |
