CANBERRA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A breeding experiment monitoring the Northern Quoll's ability to recognise the dangers of poisonous prey such as cane toads could lead to other endangered species being saved across Australia, according to scientists.
Biologists at the University of Melbourne are looking to identify if the "toad-smart" gene, which has allowed some Queensland quolls to learn not to eat cane toads, can be passed on genetically to quolls from the Northern Territory (NT).
Fifty-four quolls - small carnivorous marsupials which belong to the same animal family as the kangaroo - from Queensland and the NT have been released on Indian Island, off the coast of Darwin, to see if their offspring can survive living alongside toxic cane toads.
A cane toad looks an appetising meal to a quoll, but just nibbling at one is enough to kill the marsupial, and whole populations are being wiped out across northern Australia as the cane toads continue their inexorable spread. But some quolls in Queensland that have lived alongside the toads for over 80 years, have evolved somehow to recognise not to eat them.
Scientists are looking to determine if quoll offspring can genetically adapt to resist eating toxic prey such as cane toads and learn to live alongside them.
The results could have implications for species such as the Tasmanian Devil, which has faced extinction from an infectious facial cancer, or Great Barrier Reef corals that are being wiped out by warming temperatures.
"It is one of the first projects to look at the idea of actually using targeted gene flow for conservation purposes by moving adapted individuals into areas where populations are at risk of threats like new diseases, invasive species or climate change," a University of Melbourne Bioscience PhD candidate, Ella Kelly, said on Tuesday.
Kelly said that the population of quolls on Indian Island has declined since the study commenced in May last year, but it is too early to determine whether the cane toad is responsible.
"It is disappointing that when we went back we didn't catch as many quolls as we thought we might, but it is really exciting that there are young quolls on the island living with cane toads," Kelly said.
"It is now a matter of biting our nails while we wait another year to see if the population can grow and thrive with the cane toads."
Cane toads were almost singlehandedly responsible for the Queensland quoll population declining by 95 percent since 1935.
