Endangered "Northern Native Cat" Captured On Camera For The First Time In 80 Years At Australian Sanctuary

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and The Tony & Lisette Lewis Foundation have captured images of a northern quoll at Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, Northern Kaanju Country, Australia, for the first time in over eight decades.

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The northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus) was once widespread across northern and eastern Australia. But in the 1930s, cane toads, native to South and Central America, were brought to the country to help deal with a sugar cane pest problem. This ultimately failed to control cane beetles, but did have a terrible effect on local ecology, including on the carnivorous northern quoll, as the toads thrived and spread.

"Northern Quolls are nocturnal predators of invertebrates, but they also eat small mammals, reptiles, birds, carrion and fruit," the Australian Wildlife Conservancy explains of the animals. "Quolls become sexually mature at one year of age, and during the mating season (around June to September), males expend considerable energy fighting other males, and do not survive to breed a second year. Females den in tree hollows, hollow logs and rock crevices; they raise a litter of up to eight young. Females may live for two or three years."

Northern quolls, and other native species, are not resistant to neurotoxins present within cane toads, primarily because the country used to be free of this group of amphibians. The quolls, also known as the "northern native cat", dwindled in number thanks to these toxic toads, but also due to habitat loss, feral predators including cats, and fire. The animals had not been seen in this area for over eight decades, and ecologists believed the species had disappeared entirely from the Piccaninny Plains.

Despite surveys and many camera traps laid since 2008, no creatures had been found in the area. But in late 2025, Sanctuary Manager Nick Stock spotted an isolated rocky outcrop from a helicopter overhead, and on a hunch laid down a single camera trap in the area. It was only a few days before the elusive animal was caught on camera.

“It was a fantastic surprise!” Dr Helena Stokes, AWC Wildlife Ecologist, said in a statement. “After years of no sightings, to finally confirm a Northern Quoll on the sanctuary is hugely uplifting for our team. It reinforces the importance of persistence, good science, and managing threats across large landscapes.”

“This record gives us a roadmap,” Dr Stokes added. “We now have a clear starting point for future surveys and research. It’s possible this quoll, and hopefully others, have adapted their behaviour in response to the presence of cane toads. Understanding that resilience could be vital for the species’ long-term survival.”

The discovery could help our understanding of how northern quolls are surviving in the area. Since finding the animal the team has looked at the area, finding that it is largely unburned due to fire management practices, and cameras found no signs of feral cats in the vicinity. The team hopes to expand the search this year to determine how many of this endangered marsupial remain in the area.

“Every rediscovery matters,” Stock added. “Just when we were close to giving up hope, this little quoll reminds us why we keep searching, and why protecting these landscapes at scale is essential.”