{"id":221578,"date":"2026-01-07T14:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/221578\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:46:11","slug":"grainy-image-reveals-rare-discovery-in-aussie-outback-after-17-year-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/221578\/","title":{"rendered":"Grainy image reveals rare discovery in Aussie outback after 17-year search"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were five missed calls on the phone of ecologist Dr Helena Stokes, leading her to panic. \u201cI thought something serious must have happened,\u201d she told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n

Then she saw a series of grainy, black-and-white images taken at a Cape York<\/a> wildlife sanctuary flood her inbox. Her mood instantly changed to one of excitement.<\/p>\n

Jumping across the lens of a motion-activated camera was the distinctive shape of an endangered northern quoll<\/a>, a cat-sized marsupial predator that hadn\u2019t been documented in the area for 80 years.<\/p>\n

Located in Far North Queensland<\/a>, the sanctuary is owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and The Tony & Lisette Lewis Foundation, and is home to other threatened species, including black-footed tree rats<\/a> and banidcoots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previous surveys of the 164,850-hectare Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary over the last 17 years had failed to locate the species, despite the team using targeted camera deployments in 2015, 2021 and 2023.<\/p>\n

Although a sighting at a neighbouring sanctuary in 2017 by Indigenous rangers had given the team some hope, numbers across Australia have been spiralling downwards.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A northern quoll sitting on a rocky outcrop at the sanctuary. Source: AWC<\/p>\n

In their search for quolls, the sanctuary manager had choppered over a remote location they\u2019d neglected to survey before, then set up camera traps around an isolated rocky outcrop surrounded by savannah woodland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than 10km from the last known record,\u201d Dr Stokes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible it was there all along, and possible it\u2019s come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future of quolls threatened by invasive species<\/p>\n

Despite efforts to manage invasive species, cane toads are known to have infiltrated the area, as they continue to spread across the country<\/a> and decimate native wildlife.<\/p>\n

The species has been identified as the greatest threat to the northern quoll\u2019s survival<\/a>, because despite being the perfect prey size, they have glands behind their eardrums that ooze deadly poison when disturbed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cane toads are the greatest threat to the survival of northern quolls. Source: Brad Leue<\/p>\n

Hunt for more quolls set to begin<\/p>\n

AWC believes the animal is likely a male, and it plans to set up more cameras around the area to ascertain whether it was an individual passing through or whether there is an established population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis record gives us a roadmap,\u201d Dr Stokes said earlier in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have a clear starting point for future surveys and research. It\u2019s possible this quoll, and hopefully others, have adapted their behaviour in response to the presence of cane toads.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding that resilience could be vital for the species\u2019 long-term survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love Australia’s weird and wonderful environment? \ud83d\udc0a\ud83e\udd98\ud83d\ude33 Get our new newsletter<\/a> showcasing the week\u2019s best stories.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were five missed calls on the phone of ecologist Dr Helena Stokes, leading her to panic. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[133148,111,139,20544,69,133149,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-221578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-helena-stokes","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-northern-quoll","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-rocky-outcrop","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}