Spotted Quolls are my favourite Australian animal. They are feisty, curious and strong-limbed. Considered an apex predator, they are the second largest carnivorous marsupial (behind the Tasmanian Devil) and to hear them in the wild, they sound every bit as intimidating.
But unlike other marsupials, they have brilliant colouring. Their fur is a bright, tawny brown with white spots – perfect for hiding on the dappled sunlit floor of sub-tropical rainforests. Their noses are disproportionately large for their faces and their ears, disproportionately small. It makes them no less attractive.
There are four species of Quoll, but I have only ever seen this one in the wild. I have heard another but in the dense rainforests of the tropical north, I could not spot it.
They don’t live long. At two years of age, this one is already middle-aged. And while they are nocturnal, they spend their days basking in the sun. For what little time they get, they cram in an awful lot of living.
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