Bronze quoll

The bronze quoll (Dasyurus spartacus) is a species of quoll, a carnivorous marsupial, found only in the Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands of Papua New Guinea and South Papua in Indonesia. It is the largest surviving marsupial carnivore of New Guinea, since the thylacine disappeared from the island thousands of years ago. Five specimens were collected in the early 1970s, but the species was only described in 1987, when Stephen Van Dyck of the Queensland Museum recognised that it was distinct; it had previously been thought to be an outlying population of the western quoll. Very little is known of its biology. It is a nocturnal predator of savanna woodland. As of February 2013 the population was estimated at fewer than 10,000 animals and the IUCN listed the species as Near Threatened, with introduced predators such as domestic and feral dogs and feral cats named as threats. It has been observed in Wasur National Park and the Tonda Wildlife Management Area.