The spotted tiger quoll packs one of the strongest bites for its size
A male tiger quoll weighs about as much as a house cat's smaller cousin, around 3.5 kilograms, yet relative to its size it has the second most powerful bite of any living mammalian carnivore. This spotted Australian marsupial climbs trees after possums and can bring down prey as large as wombats.
It is the largest quoll and the second-biggest carnivorous marsupial alive, after the Tasmanian devil. Its reddish-brown coat, occasionally black, is dotted with white spots, and it is the only quoll with spots on its tail as well as its body. The tail is as long as the head and body together. Exceptional males can reach 8.85 kilograms. The nominate subspecies lives in wet forests of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, while a smaller northern form survives in a pocket of northern Queensland and is endangered.
Although the tail cannot grip, ridged pink foot pads and well-developed hind toes make it a capable climber, and about 11 percent of its travel happens off the ground. It comes down trees head first and will leap between branches after possums. Its menu is broad: insects, crayfish, lizards, snakes, birds, platypus, bandicoots, small wallabies and poultry. In one mainland study, feral rabbits made up 76 percent of its diet. That flexibility may help it cope after bushfires.
Mostly nocturnal, it dens in burrows, caves, hollow logs or even under sheds. Males roam home ranges of up to 875 hectares and may cover 3 to 5 kilometres a night in search of food. They are usually quiet but can huff, cough, hiss and scream in disputes, and mothers and young trade distinctive chh-chh and echh-echh calls. Mating happens in midwinter, and females raise the young alone.
The species is listed as near threatened, chiefly because of habitat loss. European settlement fragmented its mainland range, Victorian populations have fallen by nearly half, and it vanished from Flinders and King islands in the twentieth century. There was a surprise in 2023, though: a quoll was caught in southeastern South Australia, where the animal had been considered locally extinct for 130 years.
Source: Tiger quoll
