Quolls - Australia's native marsupial carnivores - face severe decline from invasive predators, poison baiting, and habitat loss requiring urgent welfare action.
Quoll welfare is threatened by both direct predation from invasive species and indirect harms from predator control programs. Quolls killed by feral cats experience violent deaths, often with significant injury preceding death. Quolls that consume cane toads die from toad toxins, experiencing severe physiological distress before death. Poison baiting programs designed to control foxes and cats can cause quoll deaths when baits are consumed non-selectively. Taste-aversion training - conditioning quolls to avoid cane toads before release - is an innovative welfare intervention reducing toad mortality.