Save the Australian Quoll

As a carnivore, the northern quoll likes to eat all kinds of meat, including that of the non-native cane toad, a poisonous animal whose toxin kills anything that eats it, quolls included.

[Linda Veyret, Northern Territory Wildlife Park]:
"Ever since the cane toads come up here, they've [the quolls] dramatically gone down. We are getting a couple of instances where they've been sighted."

But the quolls are not without hope. Researcher Stephanie O'Donnell is making sausages out of cane toads and thiabendozole, a chemical designed to make the quolls feel sick.

[Stephanie O'Donnell, Researcher]:
"We're trying to give them food poisoning so they associate the smell and the look of the toad with a really bad tummy ache."

And there are plenty of cane toads available for sausage meat. Since being introduced to Australia to combat the destructive sugar cane beetle in the 1930s, they have become an invasive pest, numbering more than a 100 million
across the country. Even as mince meat, says Stephanie O"Donnel, the cane toad is extremely unattractive.

[Stephanie O'Donnell, Researcher]:
"Given how awful the sausages smell and look, it tastes quite unpleasant I would say."

But the sausages seem to be working. A quarter of the quolls who've eaten them have avoided cane toads ever since. Researchers aren't declaring total victory, but they're confident that they have the recipe for success.