I am a year 6 student at Hills International College, Jimboomba. Last term, our class spent ten weeks researching, inquiring, investigating and finally presenting to our school community on a topic that each of us is passionate about. I chose to study the Spotted-tailed Quoll because I recently found out that they haven’t been seen in our local area since 2004 and I wanted to see if I could find evidence of their existence in our local area and create awareness in our local community of how and why they are disappearing.
As a part of this project my parents helped me set up trail cameras on our 85 acre Land for Wildlife property. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any evidence of quoll activity but it was great to see footage of so many native animals including bandicoots, brushturkeys, possums, wallabies, kangaroos, bush rats, bearded dragons and birds.
I spent a lot of time researching quolls and their behaviour. I even contacted Paul Revie from the Quoll Society of Australia and was able to join him for an overnight trip to Girraween National Park to see and learn how they trap and document quolls to learn more about them. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in trapping any quolls on my stay, but it was an amazing experience to be able to learn on the job.
My exhibition night was a great success. I enjoyed being able to educate our local community on everything about quolls! I made up some little Wildlife Rescue packages (including a pillow case to put any injured animals into, gloves and a small bandage) to hand out on the night so people can keep them in their cars in case they come across an injured animal on the road.
Article by Joey Swatton
Land for Wildlife member
Mundoolun, Logan