Photo: JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons.
This tiger quoll (or spotted-tailed quoll) at Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, New South Wales, Australia, is similar to one a farmer caught harassing his chickens.
The creature of the day, the spotted-tailed quoll, is not extinct everywhere but was thought to be extinct in southern Australia. That is, until a farmer protecting his chickens caught one. Imagine how your perspective would change if an animal you just wanted to destroy suddenly turned out to be a rare find!
Aspen Pflughoeft reports at the Miami Herald. “A farmer in southern Australia captured an animal considered locally extinct for over a century while trying to protect his chickens. …
“Frank Pao-Ling Tsai, a trout farmer in Beachport, South Australia, heard a ‘panic’ from his chickens and rushed outside early in the morning on Tuesday, Sept. 26, he told McClatchy News in an email.
“Inside the coop, Tsai found a spotted creature and a dead chicken, he said.
“ ‘I had no idea what it was at first,’ Tsai told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ‘I expected to find a cat, but I found this little animal instead.’ …
“The captured animal [has] a furry brown body, long tail and smattering of white spots. … Tsai captured the creature in a plastic chicken cage, he told McClatchy News. He took photos and shared them in hopes of identifying the animal.
“Wildlife officials identified the animal as a spotted-tailed quoll, the National Parks and Wildlife Service of South Australia told McClatchy News.
“Quolls are ‘about cat-sized’ marsupials with a ‘cat-like shape but a lot stronger jaws and a lot longer canine teeth,’ Limestone Coast district wildlife ranger Ross Anderson told McClatchy News.
“The spotted-tailed quoll, also known as the tiger quoll, is an endangered quoll species and the ‘largest native carnivore left on the (Australia) mainland,’ according to the Australian Conservation Foundation. An estimated 14,000 spotted-tailed quolls are left in the wild, the organization said.
“The last officially documented sighting of a spotted-tailed quoll in South Australia was in the 1880s, Anderson said. The species has been considered locally extinct for over 130 years.
“ ‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, really,’ Anderson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. …
“ ‘We can’t be sure where it’s come from,’ Anderson told the Guardian.
“The quoll Tsai originally captured managed to escape out a damaged corner of the cage, he said. Wildlife officials set up another trap and again captured a spotted-tailed quoll, Anderson said. …
“ ‘It could have been a relic population,’ Anderson told McClatchy News. ‘(Or) it could have been an animal that’s moved from other areas …. (or) it may have escaped from captivity.’
“ ‘We took some DNA to see if we can work out the likely origins,’ he said. ‘It’s a great opportunity for us to get some information and it would be fabulous if it turned out to be a relic population.’
“After being checked by a vet and DNA-tested, the captured quoll was released, Anderson said.
“Wildlife officials will set up cameras and traps to study the rediscovered quoll species and see if there are more quolls around Beachport, he said.”
See Tsai’s photos of a very angry beast at the Miami Herald, here. No firewall.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Glad he thought to check what it was! Cool that the species still exists.
I hope people reward him by buying trout from his trout farm!
The farmer was more careful than I probably would have been! I would have clabbered this thing thinking it was a rat of some sort,and ticked off it got one of my treasured chickens.😯 Glad to read it’s not extinct.
You are so funny, Deb!
😄