Latest news with #easternquoll
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Insane 'glow in the dark' creature is photographed in the Australian bush for the first time ever
A Tasmanian photographer has become the first person to ever capture an eastern quoll glowing in the bush. Ben Alldridge captured the stunning shot of the animal biofluorescing under invisible ultraviolet light. It is said to be the first time this glowing phenomenon has been recorded in the endangered marsupial's natural habitat. Mr Alldridge said the glowing effect is due to the animal's fur absorbing UV and re-emitting visible colours, a phenomenon known to occur in many mammals including the Tasmanian devil and wombats. 'Where their fur is normally fawn or black, under certain wavelengths of light, they exhibit a process referred to as biofluorescence - like nature's version of a white shirt glowing at a disco,' Mr Alldridge said. Its biological purpose remains speculative with theories it is related to communication, camouflage, or mating especially in low-light conditions. Since many nocturnal animals like marsupials can see UV light or have vision sensitive to blue and green wavelengths, fluorescence might be a visual signal they can use, while remaining less visible to predators. Mr Alldridge said he will continue to work to decode the mystery. 'I'd say it's likely a messaging or identifying system similar to our fingerprints, but that is wild speculation at best,' he said. 'For now we will just say they like to party.' For Mr Alldridge, part of his work is ongoing research into the impacts of light pollution and habitat degradation on how these species are living after dark. 'The amount of light we waste illuminating space – both physical and now literal – is ridiculous, and in many cases is counterproductive to why the lights are installed to begin with,' he said. 'As we get to grips more with the nocturnal world and how these adaptations work, we can start to optimise our own built environments to introduce as little impact as possible.' The remarkable photo is one of 12 finalists announced for this year's Beaker Street Science Photography Prize, Tasmania's premier science photography competition. From dark sky conservation and photosynthesising sea slugs to auroras, slim moulds and high-speed wildlife drama, this year's finalists offer a visual reminder of the wonder, complexity and fragility of the world around us said festival founder Margo Adler. 'This year's finalists really capture what Beaker Street is all about. Making science visible, beautiful and emotionally resonant,' she said. 'These photographs let us see the world differently, and in some cases quite literally reveal things we've never seen before.' The photographs will be on display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from August 6 to 31.
ABC News
31-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Eastern quoll to be reintroduced to Bathurst as breeding program begins
Joel and Andrea Little met at a wildlife sanctuary more than 20 years ago as part of an effort to save the eastern quoll. The carnivorous native species had been extinct on mainland Australia since 1963, with small pockets of the animal remaining in Tasmania. The pair met in 2002 and spent the next five years caring for dozens of eastern quolls at the Little River Earth Sanctuary near Geelong in Victoria. "A lot of the time it was just Andrea and I working together and we really bonded over this species," Joel said. Andrea and Joel worked on a private program reintroducing the eastern quoll to the wild and creating feral-free zones for the animals. "We bred them in cages and then released them into a big area where they don't get served their food so they have to hunt," Andrea said. "They had a normal life but within a secured area with no cats or foxes." For Andrea, who had travelled from East Germany to backpack through Australia when she met Joel, it was a surreal experience. "I just wanted to come and see kangaroos and platypuses, I had only really heard of them," she said. "Coming from East Germany where we couldn't really travel for a long time to other countries … it was always a dream." Before working with the quolls, Andrea had been volunteering at a wildlife park in the Adelaide Hills when the opportunity arose to go to the Little River Earth Sanctuary. The eastern quoll is born with its white spots before growing fur and spends up to 10 weeks living in its mother's pouch. The carnivorous marsupial is known to eat insects, grubs, rabbits, rats and small birds. More than two decades on, the Littles are involved in the Tasmanian Quoll Conservation Program (TQCP), a national initiative to return eastern quolls to the wild. The national program was launched in 2008 and quolls were rewilded on the mainland for the first time in 2018 at Booderee National Park on the NSW South Coast. The animals were killed by predators and in April 2024 another group of 19 quolls were released inside a fox-proof fence. The Littles' wildlife sanctuary near Bathurst, in the New South Wales central-west, is home to four of the marsupials that will be bred and then released. "Then they go out into this big area where they can learn about what to look for and how to deal with something that might bite back. "That is often what has been missing from a lot of conservation programs where you breed them in captivity and then release them into the wild, it is a step too far." Along with releasing the species into Boodoree National Park, the TQCP initiative has placed quolls in fenced enclosures at Mount Rothwell near Geelong, where Joel and Andrea used to work. To support these projects, the TQCP maintains captive populations of the eastern quoll across sanctuaries in Tasmania and on the mainland. Eventually it is hoped the eastern quolls will end up in the wild around Bathurst. "That is a pretty good feeling." For Andrea, working with the eastern quoll again has provided an opportunity to come "full circle" with the species and her family. "It is a great feeling to have them and to show our son as well what the animal is and how Joel and I met," she said. Joel and Andrea's wildlife sanctuary also contains other endangered and threatened species such as the parma wallaby, bandicoot and bettong that they hope to assist with breeding efforts in the future.
