What are some adaptations for a tiger quoll?

Answer 1

The tiger quoll, also known as the spotted-tailed quoll, is the largest carnivorous marsupial on Australia's mainland. Adaptations of this quoll (and other quolls) include:

Physiological

• Powerful jaws which are strong enough to crush bones of their prey.
• The capability of eating half their own body weight in one meal.
• The Tiger Quoll has irregular white spots on its back and long tail; their spotted fur enables them to camouflage in trees at night, as their dappled appearance blends in with their surroundings.
• Being a marsupial, the young are raised in a pouch.
• During breeding season, if conception fails the first time or a litter is lost, the female returns to being "in season" so that she can have another chance at reproducing a healthy litter of joeys.
• The quoll's leg structure and strong, sharp claws enable it to be an agile climber.
• Quoll babies, although completely blind, hairless and helpless, instinctively grasp hairs on the mother's fur and wriggle the 1cm distance from the birth canal to the pouch.
• Quolls have 8 teats, and up to 16 young may be born at one time - but the average is 5. Larger numbers helps ensure numbers remain reasonably populated.

  Behavioural

  • The quoll is a nocturnal hunter, usually preying on other arboreal creatures. It is even able to use its forepaw to knock perching birds off a branch, catching and killing them on the way to the ground.
  • Quolls share common toilet sites - these sites are in open areas and can have up to 100 droppings piled up. It is believed that quolls may use these sites for marking their territory and for socialising
  • Quolls are arboreal hunters and dwellers, ensuring their safety from ground-dwelling predators which once lived on the mainland, and still live in Tasmania, such as Tasmanian Devils (and, prior to the 1930s, Thylacines)
  • When water supplies dry up, quolls are able to obtain most of their moisture needs from the foods they eat.

  A good resource for finding further information can be found at the related link below. However, it is quite an in-depth document, with some scientific terms to wade through.

Answer 2

Adaptations The eastern quoll (and other quolls) include:

Physiological

• powerful jaws which are strong enough to crush bones of their prey.
• the capability of eating half their own body weight in one meal.
• The Tiger Quoll has irregular white spots on its back and long tail; their spotted fur enables them to camouflage in trees at night, as their dappled appearance blends in with their surroundings.
• being a marsupial, the young are raised in a pouch.
• during breeding season, if conception fails the first time or a litter is lost, the female returns to being "in season" so that she can have another chance at reproducing a healthy litter of joeys.
• the quoll's leg structure and strong, sharp claws enable it to be an agile climber.
• Quoll babies, although completely blind, hairless and helpless, instinctively grasp hairs on the mother's fur and wriggle the 1cm distance from the birth canal to the pouch.
• Quolls have 8 teats, and up to 16 young may be born at one time - but the average is 5. Larger numbers helps ensure numbers remain reasonably populated.

Behavioural

• the quoll is a nocturnal hunter, usually preying on other arboreal creatures. It is even able to use its forepaw to knock perching birds off a branch, catching and killing them on the way to the ground.
• quolls share common toilet sites - these sites are in open areas and can have up to 100 droppings piled up. It is believed that quolls may use these sites for marking their territory and for socialising
• quolls are arboreal hunters and dwellers, ensuring their safety from ground-dwelling predators which once lived on the mainland, and still live in Tasmania, such as Tasmanian Devils (and, prior to the 1930s, Thylacines)
• When water supplies dry up, quolls are able to obtain most of their moisture needs from the foods they eat.

Answer 3

The tiger quoll, a carnivorous marsupial of Australia, has seen several major changes in its environment since the advent of European settlement - and none of them are good.

• Land clearing and habitat loss has meant a reduction in shelterand in the quoll's food supply.
• Predation by introduced species such as dogs, cats and foxes has affected the quoll, which used to only be preyed upon by dingoes, Birds of Prey and the now-extinct Thylacine. It no longer occupies the top of the food chain.
• Competition from these same introduced species for the quoll's food has meant it has had to find other sources of food ... leading to the final point:
• Both the Spotted-tail and Northern Quolls are being killed off as a result of eating the Cane Toad, which is poisonous. The cane toad is also an introduced species.