Scat contents of the spotted-tailed quoll 'Dasyurus maculatus' in the New England gorges, north-eastern New South Wales

Title
Scat contents of the spotted-tailed quoll 'Dasyurus maculatus' in the New England gorges, north-eastern New South Wales
Publication Date
2007
Author(s)
Jarman, Peter John
Allen, Lee Robert
Boschma, Dennis John
Green, Stuart Wayne
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Place of publication
Australia
DOI
10.1071/ZO06014
UNE publication id
une:2825
Abstract
In 1313 scats of the spotted-tailed quoll 'Dasyurus maculatus', collected over 5 years from the gorge country of north-eastern New South Wales, the most frequent and abundant items were derived from mammals and a restricted set of insect orders. These quolls also ate river-associated items: waterbirds, eels, crayfish, aquatic molluscs and even frogs. Macropods contributed most of the mammal items, with possums, gliders and rodents also being common. Some food, particularly from macropods and lagomorphs, had been scavenged (as shown by fly larvae). The most frequent invertebrates were three orders of generally large insects Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Orthoptera, which were most frequent in summer and almost absent in winter scats. Monthly mean numbers of rodent and small dasyurid items per scat were inversely related to these large insects in scats. The numbers of reptile items were inversely related to the numbers of mammal (especially arboreal and small terrestrial mammal) items per scat, thus types of items interacted in their occurrences in monthly scat samples. Frequencies of most vertebrate items showed no seasonal, but much year-to-year, variation. This quoll population ate four main types of items, each requiring different skills to obtain: they hunted arboreal marsupials (possibly up trees), terrestrial small mammals and reptiles (on the ground), and seasonally available large insects (on trees or the ground), and scavenged carcases, mostly of large mammals but also birds and fishes (wherever they could find them).
Link
Citation
Australian Journal of Zoology, 55(1), p. 63-72
ISSN
1446-5698
0004-959X
Start page
63
End page
72

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