{"id":495232,"date":"2026-02-24T01:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495232\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:11:09","slug":"cute-marsupial-went-missing-from-australian-wildlife-sanctuary-for-80-years-but-thanks-to-a-well-placed-trail-camera-we-know-its-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495232\/","title":{"rendered":"Cute marsupial went missing from Australian wildlife sanctuary for 80 years \u2013 but thanks to a well-placed trail camera, we know it\u2019s back"},"content":{"rendered":"

An endangered marsupial that went missing from an Australian wildlife sanctuary<\/a> for 80 years has suddenly popped up again on a trail camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reserve, jointly owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and The Tony & Lisette Lewis Foundation, announced in January that it had photographed a northern quoll on the 164,850 hectares of land, despite ecologists concluding that the squirrel-like mammals had abandoned the plains.<\/p>\n

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The little critter was photographed using a motion-sensor trail camera on the eastern side of the reserve. Northern quolls once occupied northern and eastern Australia, but invasive species and habitat loss have had a damning effect on the animal\u2019s numbers.<\/p>\n

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According to the reserve\u2019s website, a quoll was photographed by a trail camera in the nearby Pascoe River IPA in 2017, but they haven\u2019t been spotted within the boundaries of the AWC\u2019s reserve for 80 years.<\/p>\n

What is perhaps most amazing about this story is that the camera trap didn\u2019t photograph a quoll by accident. It was little more than a hunch, after sighting a rocky outcrop from a helicopter, that prompted sanctuary manager Nick Stock to set up a camera trap. Only a few days later, Nick\u2019s hunch was proven right.<\/p>\n

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\"HWR5AJ\n<\/p>\n

The northern quoll is the smallest of the four Australian quoll species (Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n

The sanctuary quoted AWC Wildlife Ecologist, Dr Helena Stokes, as stating: \u201cThis record gives us a roadmap. We now have a clear starting point for future surveys and research.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in camera traps and how they\u2019re used in conservation, I\u2019d implore you to watch The Wild Ones on Apple TV+<\/a>, where camera trap expert Declan Burley lays hundreds of traps in a bid to film and photograph some of the world\u2019s rarest animals.<\/p>\n

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Camera traps are having a bit of a moment! Underwater camera films shark in Antarctic Ocean, thought to be a world first<\/a>. Perhaps you’re interested in wildlife photography and would like to check out the best wildlife cameras<\/a>. Plus, my ‘Big Three\u2019 camera brands for serious wildlife photography<\/a>. Do you agree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An endangered marsupial that went missing from an Australian wildlife sanctuary for 80 years has suddenly popped up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-495232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}