Behaviour

Eastern quolls come in two colours — fawn and black — both adorned with vivid white spots. They are likely extinct on mainland Australia, except within predator-free fenced areas where they have been reintroduced. Easterns are in population decline in parts of Tasmania, but we’re not entirely sure why. The Tasmanian Land Conservancy, along with UTAS and WWF, are investigating this question and are also translocating quolls to regions of low density. For daytime shelter, eastern quolls den in hollows logs, spaces beneath rocks, underground burrows, and dense thickets of vegetation. Or in this case, the space below Jane’s deck! While females may share their dens with other quolls, males are less accommodating. Female’s can raise up to six joeys at a time. Most births are between May and July, with young venturing out on their own around November. This is called natal dispersal. Young quolls are themselves capable of breeding in the very next year after their birth.

Bennett’s wallabies are the second most common macropod in Tasmania, right after the pademelon. They’re found all over the state, and have been introduced to the UK and NZ, but are most abundant on King and Flinders Islands. Their red-necked cousins (a subspecies), also occurs from Gladstone in Queensland to the southeastern corner of South Australia. Bennett’s wallabies are primarily nocturnal and lead solitary lives, spending about 60% of their time alone. However, during dawn and dusk, particularly in winter, they converge into foraging groups. Females tend to form close bonds with one or two besties, usually relatives. In contrast, males don’t really befriend any particular individual. Tassie wallabies breed seasonally between January and July, have a gestation period of about 30 days and give birth to just one joey at a time. Joeys spend about nine months in the pouch, followed by an additional three to nine months at foot alongside their mothers.

Also known as the muttonbird or moonbird, shearwaters are a pelagic (Greek: of the sea) species. They breed on inshore islands, headlands and promontories of southeastern Australia, digging burrows in soft soils for nesting. Both males and females share the responsibilities of incubating eggs and caring for the young. Maatsuyker Island in Tasmania’s southwest hosts an estimated 480,000 breeding pairs. The most recent estimate, from 1996, put their total population at 23 million birds from 285 colonies. Short-tailed Shearwaters undertake one of the longest migrations of any bird, travelling up to 17,000 kilometres each way. They migrate from Tasmania to the Bering Strait and beyond, before returning south in September to breed. These birds have been harvested by Palawa people for thousands of years. In the 1820s European sealers began trading shearwaters for their meat, oil, and feathers, with annual harvests once reaching nearly one million chicks from the Furneaux Group of islands alone.

Allogrooming, the grooming of one individual by another, is observed in a variety of animals, including birds (allopreening), primates, and, to a lesser extent, marsupials. The main function of allogrooming is often related to health and hygiene, as it helps remove ectoparasites and dirt from areas that an animal cannot reach on its own. However, allogrooming can also serve other important roles: strengthening social bonds (like between this mum and her joey), providing comfort, reinforcing social hierarchies, regulating body temperature, facilitating wound-healing (saliva has antibacterial properties), and courtship or other forms of chemical communication. Social grooming is thought to originate in the mother offspring relationship because many species only exhibit grooming in this context. Marsupials typically lick their fore-paws and then wipe their faces from behind the ears to the snout, distributing saliva and secretions from glands around the mouth over the head, which is a focus of sniffing in social encounters.

Pademelons were once widely distributed across south-eastern Australia but have been extinct on the mainland since at least the late 1800s. It is thought that Tasmanian pademelons truly are Tasmanian – they probably invaded Victoria back when sea levels were lower. Paddy’s are the most common (and cutest) macropod to our state. Their distinctive red-brown coat has also earned them the alternative name of red-bellied pademelon. Oddly, despite their very round and decidedly non-tubular shape, pademelon translates to “pouched weasel”.Pademelons breed year-round, with autumn being the most active season for births. A newborn pademelon weighs just 420 milligrams and must make an epic journey to its mum’s pouch where it will continue to develop for another seven months, becoming fully furred after around five months. Young at foot continue to suckle for a further three months until maternal pouch privileges are revoked.

Most goshawk attacks rely on stealth and surprise. They typically launch from a perch, kill their prey using their talons, and return to a perch to dine, though smaller animals might be eaten on the wing. A study of Tasmanian grey goshawks found that adult attacks were successful 48% of the time. Grey goshawks, with their pristine white plumage, can blend seamlessly with pale-barked eucalypts or can hide among flocks of white cockatoos and corellas. In contrast, the banded plumage of brown goshawks provides excellent camouflage among the dappled light of treetops. Goshawks’ diets consist of 40-50% other birds, 30-40% small mammals like rabbits or this pademelon, and the rest includes invertebrates, frogs, snakes, fish and occasional carrion. Females can take down prey up to two kilograms, impressive given that an average brown goshawk in Tassie weighs around 600 grams, and their larger sisters, the greys, weigh around 800 grams.

Devils are the largest remaining marsupial carnivore, making them Tasmania’s apex predators. They hunt small to medium-sized mammals and birds, while also scavenging for larger animals like wombats and wallabies, including roadkill. In agricultural areas, devils capitalise on available resources, feeding on newly born or still-born lambs. One study of Tasmanian devil scats found that over 60% of prey items were mammals, with brushtail and ringtail possums, pademelons, and wallabies being the most common species. Only 6% of identified items were introduced and domestic species. In another research study, carcasses monitored by camera traps were found to persist around 2.6 times longer in areas where devil populations had declined due to devil facial tumour disease. This highlights their important ecological function in removing carrion, which can act as vectors of disease, from the environment. The increased availability of carrion in these regions appears to have benefitted other species, such as the forest raven.