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Help save the Western Quoll from extinction

Support a colony of quolls, struggling to make a comeback after 130 years of local extinction

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Help save the Western Quoll from extinction

Help save the Western Quoll from extinction

Help save the Western Quoll from extinction

Help save the Western Quoll from extinction

Help save the Western Quoll from extinction

Support a colony of quolls, struggling to make a comeback after 130 years of local extinction

Support a colony of quolls, struggling to make a comeback after 130 years of local extinction

Support a colony of quolls, struggling to make a comeback after 130 years of local extinction

Support a colony of quolls, struggling to make a comeback after 130 years of local extinction

Samantha Kent
Samantha Kent
Samantha Kent
Samantha Kent
1 Campaign |
Sydney, Australia
$455 USD 12 backers
7% of $6,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

On the brink

The western quoll once roamed over 70% of the Australian mainland, but was extinct except for in a small pocket in south-western Western Australia.  

But in April 2014, 42 western quolls were released in the Flinders Ranges, in South Australia, where they had been missing for 130 years, as part of a groundbreaking re-introduction program. 

The western quoll has been thrown a lifeline, but it's not out of danger yet. It needs help to survive. 

In the last century, dozens of unique Australian mammals have been made extinct, and many others are perched precariously on the brink. But for the western quoll, we have this unique chance to save it, and undo some of the damage of the past. 

Western quoll about to be released. Photo courtesy of Ecological Horizons.


The western quoll is being hunted

This precious colony needs to stay alive long enough for them to breed and multiply. But the large release area is unfenced, and feral foxes and cats are hunting the quolls. 

It is estimated that there are 15 million feral cats across Australia, each killing an average of five native animals a night. The quoll reintroduction team is battling to keep our quolls safe from these ferocious predators.


Why is this project important?

This is not just about the western quoll. Making the release area safe for the quoll will mean that it will be safe for many other native species, as well. 

Up until now, the concentration of the western quoll population in just one pocket of Australia made them vulnerable. Spreading the quoll population around is an important insurance policy for the survival of the species as a whole.


This is where we need your help

All money raised from this campaign will go directly towards maintaining a safe environment (feral predator control of goats, rabbits, foxes and cats); and towards funding equipment, vet care and research to support the survival and breeding success of reintroduced quolls. 

Young male western quoll with tracking collar in soft-release pen.
Photograph courtesy of Ecological Horizons


Who is running this project?

This release is a culmination of 7 years of research and work, and is being run by FAME, the Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species, a non-profit organisation. www.fame.org.au

The project plan is supported by the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) which has been protecting Australia’s last remaining Western quolls for 17 years. DPaW are providing the animals for translocation. The South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) is providing support for feral control via Operation Bounceback.

Female western quoll with babies. Photo courtesy of Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife 


What is special about this project?

In Australia, re-introduction of locally extinct native species is rare. Most often, species are protected where they still remain. Many dozens of native Australian species have been extinguished over the last 200 years, and most projects aim to halt that decline. The Western quoll re-introduction program is different in that it is putting an important species back where it once lived. 


About the western quoll

The western quoll, roughly the size of a small domestic cat, is central Australia’s largest remaining native carnivore. As a predator at the top of the food chain, the western quoll helps safeguard the health of the whole ecosystem. 

The decline of the western quoll has been the result of many factors including: habitat alteration, land clearing, bushfires, and disease. Other dangers are predation by, and competition for food with, foxes and feral cats; being hit by motor vehicles; illegal shooting, poisoning and trapping; accidental drowning in water tanks; and entanglement in barbed wire fencing.


Map of South Australia, showing records of where fossil remains were found, as well as potential western quoll release sites.

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