Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
The northern quoll, Dasyurus hallucatus, is part of a suite of threatened native northern Australian mammals that have inappropriate fire regimes listed as a threatening process. However, fire responses reported for D. hallucatus are inconsistent among different studies. Based on the theory that the fire response of D. hallucatus will depend partially on habitat quality, we postulate that home range in high quality savannas of the north Kimberley will be small, post-breeding male mortality low and prey resources little affected by fire. Based on previous research we hypothesised that male D. hallucatus would respond to fire more than females. By radio tracking 18 D. hallucatus (9 females and 9 males) for between 23 and 79 days during breeding and non-breeding seasons we found that D. hallucatus had small home ranges and high male post-breeding survival, supporting the hypothesis that the north Kimberley provides high quality habitat, consisting of extensive, structurally complex habitats with abundant resources for this species. We assessed prey resources by trapping in burnt and unburnt habitats and confirmed that they were not adversely affected by prescribed burning. However, despite equal prey availability in burnt and unburnt habitats, female D. hallucatus avoided burnt habitat while males did not. We suggest that female avoidance of burnt habitats may be related to increased risk of predation in burnt habitat during the breeding season. Non-selective movement through burnt habitat to visit multiple females may offset increased predation risk for males. Results suggest that a variegated landscape with both burnt and longer unburnt habitat for hunting and predator avoidance, and which impedes extensive wildfires, is likely to be the most beneficial pyroscape for D. hallucatus.
Keywords
critical weight range, Dasyurus hallucatus, fire response, habitat quality, threatened mammals, tropical savanna
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
7-1-2026
Article Number
e70269
E-ISSN
14429993
ISSN
14429985
Volume
51
Issue
7
Publication Title
Austral Ecology
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Science
RAS ID
101947
Funding Information
The University of Western Australia supported Annette Cook with a University Postgraduate scholarship and Department of Environment and Conservation (now Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions) Fire Management Services provided a top-up scholarship.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Radford, I. J., Cook, A., Harrison, N., Corey, B., Bencini, R., & Mills, H. R. (2026b). Dasyurus hallucatus movement response to fire in a complex, resource rich tropical savanna. Austral Ecology, 51(7), e70269. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.70269