An extinct animal

The Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) is a cat-sized, nocturnal, marsupial carnivore.  It is a skilled predator which can bring down prey as large as a rabbit but research into its diet suggests that it feeds mainly on invertebrates.  At the time of European settlement Quolls were widespread across Victoria in woodlands, grasslands and open forests, and in some places where prey was abundant, their numbers were quite large.  At the beginning of the 20th century, however, the populations across the state went into sharp decline from which they never recovered.  The last records for any individuals of Eastern Quolls in Victoria was in the 1950s while the last animals seen in mainland Australia were in the 1960s near Sydney.  The Eastern Quoll is classified as extinct in Victoria, it is also listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (FFG).

There is no clear explanation for quoll's extinction on the mainland but reasons that have been put forward include habitat loss, the introduction of cats and foxes (both of which were competitors and predators of quolls) and widespread destruction by farmers.  It is difficult to reconcile these as adequate reasons for such a sharp decline - most animals vanished in a few decades - as the species is still common in Tasmania where habitat loss is almost as severe, farmers were just as ready to hunt them and cats are nearly as common.  Only the absence of the fox in Tasmania supports these arguments.

Another suggestion, widely circulated, is that a disease of epidemic proportions was the major factor in the Quoll's disappearance on the mainland.  It would certainly explain why the Tasmanian populations were unaffected. This theory has been met with scepticism as there has been nothing apart from anecdotal evidence to support it.  Recent events in Tasmania, however, have reignited interest in the theory as a highly contagious and fatal virus has affected up to 65% of Tasmanian Devils.  The disease, a facial tumour, was first discovered in 1995 and in little more than a decade has reduced the total population by 20-50% while some local populations have been completed wiped out.

Of the 830 native species of mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs and fish that are listed in Illustrated Fauna Information System, 20 are classified as extinct in this state.  All but four of these are mammals; two quolls, six small wallabies, two bandicoots, a phascogale, two mice and three rats.  It appears that European settlement has been particularly hard on native mammals, especially those that are medium-sized to small, ground-dwelling species - there are no extinct bats, possums, wombats, kangaroos or large wallabies, in fact there are several species in these groups that have increased in numbers in the past 100 years.