Canberra Sanctuary Prepares for Bird Flu Threat to Endangered Quolls

A population of quolls is being protected by a sanctuary in Canberra, but the threat of the H5 strain of bird flu could mean that protection does not go far enough.

Eastern quolls, which are listed as endangered, have been extinct on mainland Australia for more than 60 years.

They have been successfully reintroduced into different wildlife sanctuaries across Australia, including a population of around 200 at Mulligans Flat in the ACT.

That wildlife sanctuary is preparing for the worst-case scenario if bird flu arrives in the ACT, constructing 16 quarantine pens for the mammals, which are thought to be at a higher risk because their diet includes sick or dead birds.

Chief executive of the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust, Jason Cummings, said if the H5 strain of bird flu makes it to the sanctuary, it could "decimate" the local quoll population.

"We have such small populations of these endangered species that it's a significant risk that they could negatively impact the population," said Dr Cummings.

Dr Cummings said the quarantine pens were "an insurance policy" so that even if the majority of the population was wiped out, there would be enough quolls in the sanctuary to re-establish the species locally.

"The concept we've got is to bring some in, keep them separated from the bird flu, and then re-release them once the bird flu's passed through to re-bolster that population," he said.

The task is made more challenging by the fact quolls are not very social, particularly in their breeding season.

"Eastern quolls are tricky to keep together because at different stages of their lifestyles they fight with each other," Dr Cummings said.

"So depending on what time of the year we might bring some in, that'll determine how many we can bring in and how we locate them together and keep them together and look after them through time."

Mulligans Flat wildlife project manager Dean Maxworthy said the 16 cages had to be specially built to ensure the quarantined quolls could not escape.

"We will have a skirt that sits … underneath the ground so when they dig down … they'll hit that skirt and hopefully won't keep on digging into the other side," he said.

Mr Maxworthy said along with ensuring the quolls were safely in their pens, the team would also be making sure they did not get too bored in quarantine.

"They are technically wild quolls, so we're going to have to keep an eye on them and make sure they're not going too stir crazy," he said.

"We've got a bunch of hollows and stuff that we're going to put inside there and create them some really cool little dens so that they feel as safe as they possibly can inside the enclosures."

Dr Cummings said another part of the preparatory work was making sure the sanctuary had food for the quolls if the poultry industry was affected by bird flu.

"We're building up a little stockpile of chickens and rabbits and kangaroo meat and things like that so ... we've got some food on hand to feed these critters while we've got them," he said.

He said there were various trigger points that would see the quoll quarantine pens being filled with the endangered mammals, but for now, it was a waiting game.

"It [H5 bird flu] is not going to get here overnight … but we'll keep an eye on the records," Dr Cummings said.

"So it's a process, watching and learning as it unfolds around the country, and then we'll be looking to take action before it gets to us in Canberra."