A quoll with white spots extending onto its tail.
Bold white spots cover its reddish-brown body and tail. Males are usually larger than females.
Spotted-tailed quolls are often linked with large forests, but one mainland study found them in a mixed, fragmented landscape. Researchers set 42 lured camera traps in an agricultural area and compared open grassland, grassy woodland, dry sclerophyll forest and wet sclerophyll forest. Quolls appeared in all four.
Raw detections suggested greater use of dry forest and grassy woodland, with seasonal variation; occupancy models found no clear preference and showed broader habitat use. This difference shows why camera counts and modelled occupancy are not interchangeable. The study covered one landscape; prey availability and seasonal behaviour may also shape use. It adds evidence that patches outside continuous forest can matter, without showing that every altered landscape is suitable.
Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) · D. m. gracilis and south-eastern mainland population: Endangered; Tasmanian population: Vulnerable · Australia (three national statutory listing units)
Australia’s EPBC Act lists three conservation units for the spotted-tailed quoll. The national recovery plan classifies the north-eastern Queensland subspecies D. m. gracilis and the south-eastern mainland population of D. m. maculatus as Endangered, while the Tasmanian population of D. m. maculatus is Vulnerable. The plan dates from 2016 and covers recovery across the species’ eastern Australian range. These are Australian statutory listings for separate taxa or populations, not one global category. A 2023 mainland study recorded quolls using several vegetation types in one fragmented landscape, but that local result cannot establish the status or habitat security of every listed conservation unit.