🇦🇺 Baby boom for the Quoll in Australia
An animal which became extinct in Australia during the 60’s now bounced back to life in the outback. 63 babies were born in the wild during the mating season this year alone.
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The eastern quoll, a native marsupial predator, can still be found on the island of Tasmania but on mainland Australia, the species have been extinct since 1960. Now, 63 quoll babies have been born in the wild this mating season alone.
Aussie Ark, an organization helping the most endangered of Australia's animals come back from the brink of extinction, have kept the quoll safe from threats at the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary. The species recovery is a sign of success, resilience and hope according to Good News Network.
“This quoll baby boom is truly incredible!” said Dean Reid, Aussie Ark Operations Manager to Good News Network. “It’s significant not only for our organization, but also Australia and the world.”
“You need to remember that eastern quolls have been extinct on mainland Australia since 1967! So, the birth of these joeys (baby quolls) feels like a modern Jurassic Park; bringing a species back from the brink, to reclaim the Australian bush.”
For millions of years, the eastern quoll were part of Australia's landscape and they played an important role as carnivores. Sadly, poisoning, trapping, land clearing and predation by feral animals led to their extinction. Fortunately, populations survived on the island of Tasmania. The individuals bred at the 1000 acre sanctuary (Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary), came from the populations on the island. Now the number of quolls at the sanctuary have grown to 250 individuals.
“This is what our work is all about, this is the ultimate reward for all the years of care,” Tyler Gralton, an Aussie Ark supervisor who oversaw the pouch checks that revealed the record numbers of baby quolls said in a statement. “To open pouch after pouch and see so many joeys is a sight I’ll never forget.”
The Aussie Ark have helped many species bounce back from the brink of extinction such as the Manning River Turtle and the Tasmanian devil.
“This just goes to show that once you can get these animals back to where they belong in this 400 hectares of feral-free sanctuary, they can do all this hard work on their own,” said Gralton.
Picture: Aussie Ark
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