Tiger Quoll in Grampians

[Strider]

Maybe there is hope for the thylacine yet!

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-0 ... e-/4995444

[GPSGuided]

Excellent! But what's to do with the Tasmanian Tiger?

[Travis22]

Just saw this on Parks FB page, very cool.

The Thylacine... cool to imagine hey

GPS - whats it got to do with it? Well i can only assume Striders alluding to the fact that if this animal hasnt been seen in the Gramps for 140years yet here we have a photo of one living there today, perhaps, just perhaps a very real and alive Thylacine image might turn up on a trail camera too someday

In all seriousness, highly highly unlikely but nothing wrong with floating the idea.

Travis.

[simonm]

Nice to see.

[Drifting]

We saw one on Mt Buffalo about 7 years ago, clear as could be, but the rangers wouldn't even record our sighting.

[Strider]

if this animal hasnt been seen in the Gramps for 140years yet here we have a photo of one living there today, perhaps, just perhaps a very real and alive Thylacine image might turn up on a trail camera too someday

Bingo.

[Hallu]

Camera traps are the best way of snapping pictures of a shy animal. It works wonders with tigers, and they proved that tigers lived in high altitudes in the Himalayas thanks to camera traps. But you still need the skill of a hunter/tracker in order to know where to place the trap. You can't just randomly place them and hope for the best. So it would need collaboration between rangers/Tassie locals and technological experts to apply a larger scale project in Tasmania. It should at least be attempted, funded through donations, and such a campaign would be good publicity for Tasmania. It wouldn't be wasted even with no Thylacine pic as it could also provide data on foxes and native wildlife.

[GPSGuided]

In all seriousness, highly highly unlikely but nothing wrong with floating the idea.

Thanks. I agree. It's more akin to religion, faith based.

[stepbystep]

There's dozens of camera traps in the hunt for the tiger right now, and has been for quite some time. Whether the guys I know that are using them know what they are doing is questionable however...

[icefest]

We saw one on Mt Buffalo about 7 years ago, clear as could be, but the rangers wouldn't even record our sighting.

Thylacine or spotted quoll?

[peregrinator]

We saw one on Mt Buffalo about 7 years ago, clear as could be, but the rangers wouldn't even record our sighting.

Thylacine or spotted quoll?

Or ranger?

Fewer and fewer of that species will be sighted as governments continue to cut funding.

[madmacca]

GPS - whats it got to do with it? Well i can only assume Striders alluding to the fact that if this animal hasnt been seen in the Gramps for 140years yet here we have a photo of one living there today, perhaps, just perhaps a very real and alive Thylacine image might turn up on a trail camera too someday
Travis.

I have been reading recently about efforts to cross-breed populations of mountain pygmy possums between the sky islands of Mt Buller and Mt Hotham to encourage genetic diversity.

If there is a small isolated population of quolls in the Grampians, they may benefit from such an approach too.

[Happy Pirate]

GPS - whats it got to do with it? Well i can only assume Striders alluding to the fact that if this animal hasnt been seen in the Gramps for 140years yet here we have a photo of one living there today, perhaps, just perhaps a very real and alive Thylacine image might turn up on a trail camera too someday
Travis.

I have been reading recently about efforts to cross-breed populations of mountain pygmy possums between the sky islands of Mt Buller and Mt Hotham to encourage genetic diversity.

If there is a small isolated population of quolls in the Grampians, they may benefit from such an approach too.

Folks
I'm not saying you're wrong but be careful of glibly using ideas of 'Benefit' as it is a very loaded term here.

Genetic isolation may seem 'bad' in the short term because it can lead to in-breeding but genetic isolation is also required to generate speciesiation.
If one believes Quamman, isolation is the only way species develop (I'm not convinced).

Of course all these arguments are skewed badly by issues of habitat loss, feral animal incursion and current management.
Even "The Grampians" is a contrived idea delineated by contemporary land clearing and protected area extent (economic non-viability extent) not by habitat or land type.
Of course land clearing does create 'islands' of separation to a greater than 'natural' extent but we need to be careful of unqualified ideas such as 'benefit'.
Generally, inbreeding is one of the last things to kill a still remaining species these days. Before inbreeding a species has to survive hunting, habitat loss, feral predation, feral competition, Habitat modification, environmental toxicity, behavioral interference and broad habitat change (e.g. climatic discomfort). Just off the top of my head.
My point is it may be like trying to save a heart-attack patient from a mozzie bite.
What might seem like a 'benefit' in a 30 second MSM puff piece may not represent the actual issue.

**Edit** And I didn't even start to discuss the ideas of minimum viable population size **Edit**

cheers sads
Steve

[sambar358]

Tiger Quolls are a very rare capture in Victoria on trail cameras but I am aware of a few fellas who have been lucky & snapped the occasional Quoll with the trail cams set for deer. For little predators like the Quolls a specific set-up targeting just them would be desirable....a camera watching a carcass of some sort and plenty of patience. I build trail cameras for a hobby mostly for deer hunters but I have had several clients asked me to build units to be used to get Tiger Quoll images & one fella recently sent me several pics of a Quoll feeding on a sheep carcass from one of these units but this was in SE NSW and his first Quoll images after several years of trying. So they are about but very vulnerable to fox/feral cat predation and 1080 poison of course. The move towards large-scale aerial baiting of 1080 for wild dogs in eastern Victoria has recently raised its ugly head again and hopefully this proposal will once more get the thumbs-down as IMO the bi-kill of our small carnivors and birds, especially eagles, hawks & owls would be significant. Great little critters are the Tiger Quolls.....but very secretive and not often encountered....but they are there in some areas. Here's a couple of the pics of the Tiger Quoll feeding on a sheep carcass in SE NSW. Cheers

S358

Last edited by sambar358 on Tue 08 Oct, 2013 3:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Giddy_up]

Great pictures S358, thanks for the share.

[GPSGuided]

Nice photos! But imagine that mouth full of wool. Yuck!