Scientists fear one of Australia's most endangered marsupials could be at risk on the mainland after bushfires destroyed parts of their habitat and the habitat that is left has become a haven for predators.
Eastern quolls were recently reintroduced to the mainland after becoming extinct there 60 years ago, surviving only in Tasmania.
Rewilding field ecologist Patrick Giumelli has been working with the quolls in Booderee National Park on the New South Wales South Coast for the past two years.
He said while the bushfires did not reach the park, it destroyed the habitats of predators which have now fled to the unburnt safe haven.
"Booderee is a green haven for foxes," Mr Giumelli said.
"We are trying to understand if there are more foxes coming in and what we can do to manage them."
Rewilding program on hold
Rewilding Australia has been releasing quolls into the national park periodically to bolster numbers on the mainland.
Mr Giumelli said more would be released at Jervis Bay in 2021 provided fox numbers were low.
"It is an ambitious plan, but we don't get reward without risk.
"Anything we can learn from this program will be valuable for conservation moving forward."
With the park also closed to tourists due to coronavirus, researchers hope it will mean less interruptions and fewer quolls becoming roadkill.
"We are hoping there will be some breeding occurring," Mr Giumelli said.
"When it re-opens we will try and get out into the park and see if they have pouch young."
Not all bad news
Researchers from the Team Quoll organisation further down the coast said their cameras had spotted a different species of quoll in Monga State Forest.
Four spotted-tailed quolls, which are also endangered, were seen after the Currowan bushfire despite the habitat being almost completely destroyed.
Katerina Mikac from the University of Wollongong said the marsupials were clever enough to hide underground or outrun a fire because they could cover large distances in a day.
But with no access to Monga or the quolls from November until February, she was worried about whether they had survived.
She said her team literally jumped for joy when the first images of quolls came through.
"It was very inspirational to see the first quoll image we got back in February," Dr Mikac said.
"It gives us a real insight into the resilience of the species."
