Bad taste in the mouth could save quolls AAP JULY 09, 2013 12:00AM
ONE dodgy meal and a night spent hugging the porcelain can create a lifetime of food aversion. At least that's the principle researchers are relying on to save northern quolls from cane toad-induced extinction. Dr Jonathan Webb from the University of Technology Sydney is leading a project to turn the Kimberley quoll population off cane toads, which can be lethal if eaten. The team started by feeding small non-lethal toads to captive reared quolls at the Territory Wildlife Park in 2009. The toads were coated with a worming agent used on livestock to induce a bad case of nausea. "A single experience for the quoll created a long-lasting effect," Dr Webb told AAP.
Matter of taste ... The northern quoll's (Dasyurus hallucatus) taste for large adult cane toads has driven the cat-sized marsupial to the verge of extinction. Picture Jonathan Webb Source: Supplied
"It's the same for people - my wife can't eat tomatoes because of a bad experience she had when she was little." About 90 per cent of the quolls took cane toads off the menu after one night of tummy troubles. A year later about 50 of these 'smart toads' were released into Kakadu National Park where they have been regularly monitored with surprising results. "Lots of people said it was a good idea but it would never work because we'd have to train each new generation of quolls. "But what we found is that the young quolls are learning from their mothers not to eat the cane toads," Dr Webb said. There's now a third generation of quolls with cane toad aversion and a recent study found about two-thirds of the quolls in the study area were the descendants of the reintroduced 'toad-smart' females. The researchers now want to use the aversion therapy to save other quoll populations. This time they plan to inject cane toad sausages with the worming agent and drop them by helicopter ahead of the toad invasion front. "The quolls will recognise the smell and taste of the cane toads when they arrive and won't be killed by eating them," Dr Webb said. "If we don't do anything we know we are going to lose them."
