Australia's surviving marsupial carnivores: threats and conservation

Abstract

Australia has the world's most diverse fauna of marsupial carnivores – those species whose diet comprises a significant amount of vertebrate prey. All species – the Tasmanian devil and four species of quolls – have threatened status and have declined in distribution and/or abundance; three species (devil, eastern and northern quolls) with severe declines in the last decade. Threats are multiple, and include complex interactions between habitat change and introduced predators. Infectious disease is the major factor threatening the devil with extinction, and may interact with other factors for quolls. Large-scale ecological restoration of entire faunas, in which the ecological functionality of apex predators is reinstated, is an important goal for conservation management. For marsupial carnivores, this will require a combination of in situ and ex situ strategies, including broad-scale control of introduced predators and disease combined with captive breeding where needed, trans-locations and fenced sanctuaries and islands.