Behind the Image

It took three years of perseverance and searching to bring a shy, but ferocious, marsupial carnivore out of the shadows.

Waiting patiently for a spotted-tailed quoll

Deep in the forests of New South Wales lives a little-known nocturnal marsupial – the spotted-tailed quoll. David had become fascinated by this creature as a young boy, after seeing a drawing of this ‘tiger cat’ on a postage stamp ( below) issued in the early 1960s.

More than 50 years later, while making a documentary on the 40-year campaign to save south-east Australia’s forests, David embarked on a mission to film this elusive species. “Quolls are neglected because they are out of sight, out of mind,” he says. “My search was the merging of a childhood yearning to see an almost mythical creature, and a desire to record something rarely seen.”

Quoll crusade

David spent the next three years setting up remote cameras in areas known for spotted-tailed quolls, particularly on farms adjacent to forests. “Quolls love poultry, and farmers were often my best contacts,” he says. “But, in all that time, I didn’t film a single one.” Four months from film deadline and still his quarry eluded him. Then, by chance, David met a farmer whose dog had been attacked by a quoll. Within a few weeks, he had his first footage of a pair. After another six months, one of his camera-traps delivered this image – which, interestingly, shows a female in daylight.

Two other quoll species inhabit mainland Australia, and, like the spotted-tailed, are now confined to small remnants of their former ranges. A fourth, the eastern quoll, occurs in Tasmania, and is being reintroduced to the mainland. “Some people think the spotted-tail is recovering in some areas, but there is still a long way to go,” says David. “These are far-ranging creatures that need old-growth forest – connectivity is key to their survival.”