I mentioned quolls. Not one person knew what they were

May 25, 2026 — 5:30pm

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Australia’s extinction crisis doesn’t begin when the last animal dies. It begins much earlier – when people stop noticing what’s missing.

This occurred to me at a barbecue recently when I mentioned quolls in conversation and was met with blank stares around the table. Not one person knew what they were. Think about that for a moment.

Quolls are among Australia’s most remarkable native predators. These spotted marsupials, found nowhere else on Earth, have become so absent from our national consciousness that many Australians no longer even know they exist.

A few days after the barbecue, a friend shared a photo in our group chat of a fox wandering through her backyard. Another responded simply: “So cute!”

Outrage over ‘slap on wrist’ for shaking possum onto hard concrete

I haven’t stopped thinking about that contrast. In many ways, those two moments captured Australia’s extinction........

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