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Quoll
Eastern Quoll - Dasyurus
viverrinus
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Qq
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When the first white settlers came to Australia they noticed cat-sized hunters which often raided their chicken runs. The settlers called these animals cats because they didn't know what else to call them. There was a large one, which had white spots all over its body and tail, so it was named the Tiger Cat (an odd name as tigers have black stripes) and a smaller one, which was simply called the Native Cat.
Today we call them all quolls and we recognise four species across Australia.
The Eastern Quoll is the smallest of them and is was once the most
common in south-eastern Australia. Today, however, it is
extinct on the mainland and exists only in Tasmania where, perhaps
not coincidentally, there are no foxes or dingoes.
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