The whiskery, sleek and streamlined
Chuditch, is a marsupial that
Is often mistakenly felinedAs the Western Native Cat
He is also called the Western Quoll
And with his spotted coat and nose of pink
He looks both cute and droll
But he may not be what you think
Like most ferocious carnivores
He can be very frightening
When razor teeth and tearing claws
Flash out like greasy lightning
I was horrified to see a dead Chuditch on Julimar Road last week. Julimar Road runs though the Julimar State Forest and is littered with corpses. Kangaroo’s, parrots, foxes, rabbits by the hundred, and the occasional echidna and Black Gloved Wallaby all turned into road-kill. But this was the first Chuditch I had seen. My heart sank as I saw the thick based tail and the distinctive spotted coat. But then I thought, perhaps this is an indication that the local population is increasing. Impossible to tell from a single animal but it is a comforting thought.
The Chuditch (Dasyurus geoffroii) is Western Australia’s largest marsupial predator and was officially Endangered (IUCN red list) in 1994. Active fox baiting has enabled it to recover somewhat but it is still classified as Near Threatened and its survival depends totally on ongoing active fox baiting. Its fragmented habitat through the wheat belt in particular is not helping because not all small pockets of remnant bush are fox baited and there are still local population declines.
We have a bush-block adjacent the Julimar Forest and occasionally capture images of the nocturnal Chuditch on a sensor camera. The bad news is that we also capture many fox images. We seem to have reached a balance with respect to fox control and need to urgently extend the baiting programme. The problem of course is extreme reluctance to extend baiting into farmland or near residential areas where there is a risk of family pets being baited. The consequence is huge fox populations in unbaited areas marauding into our National Parks and consuming our endangered wildlife. And the general level of community and political awareness about just how serious this problem is and the need for ongoing vigilance, is very low. The Western Shield fox baiting programmes is not receiving either the level of attention or funding that it needs.
