- A new study from northern Australia has highlighted the importance of Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge (ICEK) in conservation efforts of the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), an endangered carnivorous marsupial.
- This study, published in Wildlife Research, was led by the Martu people, whose lands lie in the state of Western Australia.
- The study finds that cultural knowledge has helped provide a historical baseline for the northern quoll in areas that were previously undocumented by Western science.
- By integrating cultural knowledge with contemporary conservation strategies, the study shows that culturally and ecologically informed approaches can be developed to conserve northern quoll populations on Martu lands, ensuring the resilience of both the species and the landscapes they inhabit.
Despite its widespread biodiversity, Australia holds an unenviable record when it comes to wildlife: the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world.
Since the arrival of Europeans and colonial expansion, at least 40 terrestrial mammal species have been lost, and others are facing serious threats. Notable among these is the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), a small, carnivorous marsupial that ranges through tropical areas of the continent and is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List due to threats posed by introduced animals gone feral, habitat change, and landscape degradation.
The loss of mammalian biodiversity has coincided with widespread threats to the preservation of First Nations cultural knowledge in Australia. Over the past two centuries, Indigenous people have been forcibly removed from their lands and resettled in other parts of the continent. During this time, traditional land management practices and cultural knowledge of local biodiversity have largely not been considered by the scientific establishment.
Now, however, a recent study has used Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge (ICEK) alongside Western scientific methods as way to help conserve northern quolls, and potentially other species, into the future.
The study, published in January in the journal Wildlife Research, was led by members of the Martu people, whose traditional lands span portions of the western desert region in Western Australia, the country’s largest state. Northern quolls, known in the Martu language as wiminyji, were only identified by modern science in this part of the country in 2012, despite Martu elders knowing of the species’ presence in the surrounding environment for generations.
The methodology of the study centered around ninti, or knowledge-sharing sessions between Martu elders, scientists, and the wider Martu community in areas where northern quolls were detected. During these sessions, which followed culturally appropriate protocols, Martu elders recalled the northern quoll as historically widespread. These accounts suggest that significant declines occurred within the last century, and which the study attributes to the impacts of introduced predators and the alteration of traditional burning practices.
Central to the study was the work of an Indigenous ranger team, run by Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ), a community-led corporation that manages a number of programs that provide social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits to the Martu people. The KJ Martu ranger team is one of more than 125 ranger groups cross Australia in which ICEK is combined with Western science to undertake conservation and ecosystem management.
Martu elder Muuki Taylor, a KJ Martu ranger who is also a co-founder of KJ, was a lead author on the Wildlife Research paper. Taylor told WA science news outlet Scitech he remembered “hearing stories from the old people” about northern quolls. “They were all over [Martu country], wiminyji used to be everywhere,” he said.
Danielle Booth, a fellow KJ Martu ranger, said she took part in research trips co-led by the WA state government’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), during which northern quolls were recorded on camera traps. She expressed the importance that the species holds for the Martu people. “Seeing [wiminyji] for the first time was emotional,” she told Scitech.
In the study, Heather Sampson, a senior Martu Elder and language worker, recounted her father telling her about the northern quoll. “This is the one you got to take care of when I’m gone; this is the very important one,” she recalled, highlighting the importance of the species to Martu culture.
Harry Moore, a research scientist at DBCA and co-author of the study, said the paper sets a standard for collaboration between the Western scientific establishment and First Nations communities.
“A condition of the study being accepted was that an Indigenous language summary had to be included,” Moore told Mongabay during a phone interview. “It was very significant to have KJ Martu rangers working with elders to ensure that there was a clear understanding of what was being studied and to ensure that there was informed consent for the use of cultural knowledge.”
Moore said having the language summary was pivotal to the project being understood and supported by the community.
“There are elders in the Martu community who speak English as a second or even a third language. Having the summary in Martu allowed them to fully grasp what was trying to be achieved,” he told Mongabay. “I think that, in the future, if there is the opportunity to include Indigenous languages into a study like this, that it should always be taken.”
One of the paper’s key findings relates to fire management and its effects on quoll populations. For thousands of years, First Nations people across Australia managed their lands through traditional burning practices. These practices were, in many cases, altered or stopped altogether through colonial expansion, which resulted in habitat change for native animals.
“Our findings show that wiminyji inhabited the study area while Martu people were living there and practicing traditional burning,” Moore said. “Feral animals coexisted with native fauna at the time. However, once people were moved from their land and traditional fire regimes ceased, wiminyji numbers began the decline we see today.
“This is not to diminish the impacts of feral animals but to highlight that the findings from the paper are in line with the observations of other Indigenous groups across the continent.”
Georgia Ward-Fear, a research fellow at Macquarie University’s School of Natural Sciences in Sydney, is a conservation biologist who has worked extensively alongside Indigenous ranger teams in researching endangered species but was not affiliated with this study. She highlighted the detrimental effects that out-of-control wildfires burning on large fuel loads can have on habitat for native animals. This is in contrast to traditional burning techniques — also known as “mosaic” burning due to the patchwork appearance of plant growth after fire — in which smaller fires are ignited during cooler times of the year and which can be managed effectively.
“The alteration of traditional fire regimes has had huge implications for many species across Australia, through direct mortality due to late season hot fires, destruction of habitat and removal of food sources,” she told Mongabay in an email. “Essentially, any species that has evolved to rely upon seasonal resources for food or shelter has been impacted.”
These include grain-dependent and ground-nesting birds and small mammals and reptiles, Ward-Fear explained, with the concern being that once habitat is incinerated by intense fires, animals become extremely vulnerable to predation by introduced predators, notably feral cats.
“Traditional Owners understand the impact from changing fire regimes, and the restoration of traditional fire practices has shown excellent benefits for biodiversity and the health of the country,” Ward-Fear said. “This study highlights this first hand.”
Additionally, the study may also provide insights into conserving a species that is facing widespread devastation due to the presence of cane toads (Rhinella marina), an introduced species that was released into mainland Australia in the 1930s to control agricultural pests. The toad, native to South America, carries a toxin that is deadly to many Australian animals and has helped contribute to localized extinctions of northern quolls and other species across the continent.
For the northern quoll, the Martu lands have been described by researchers as the “last mainland stronghold” for the species that isn’t already occupied by cane toads. The population there is currently the largest and most intact.
As KJ Martu rangers continue to manage this area, Moore said the empowerment of Indigenous rangers and community, supported by Western science, will be vital to ensuring the future of the species.
“Indigenous lands are home to many threatened species, often in areas that are inaccessible to outsiders,” he said. “Because they know these lands so well, Indigenous peoples are uniquely positioned to manage them using their long-standing cultural knowledge.
“We hope that there are more opportunities for ranger teams and the wider community to undertake these types of studies in the future.”
Banner image: A northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus) caught on camera trap. Image by Judy Dunlop.
Citations:
Woinarski, J. C., Legge, S. M., Moseby, K., Burbidge, A. A., Carthey, A. J., Dickman, C. R., … Ritchie, E. G. (2026). Investigating the causes of an extinction catastrophe: Controlling introduced predators remains essential for conserving Australia’s mammals. BioScience. doi:10.1093/biosci/biaf204
Taylor, M., Taylor, N., Samson, H., Judson, T., Chapman, N. N., Miller, N. M., … Moore, H. (2026). Wiminyji in the Western Desert: Martu knowledge reveals historical declines of northern quolls in arid Australia. Wildlife Research, 53(1). doi:10.1071/WR25014
Dunlop, J., Von Takach, B., Dempster, T., Jolly, C. J., Letnic, M., Lohr, C., … Phillips, B. L. (2025). Quantifying the potential impact of the cane toad (Rhinella marina) on biodiversity in Australia’s Pilbara region. Scientific Reports, 15(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-025-24017-4
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