Quoll

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

Quolls (genus Dasyurus) are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. There are six species of quoll, four in Australia and two in New Guinea.

The name dasyurus means "hairy tail". 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.

The family Dasyurini to which quolls belong also includes the Tasmanian devil, antechinuses, the kowari, and mulgaras.

Quoll species

In the genus Dasyurus, these species exist:

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 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. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. 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