Quenda, the Eco-System Engineers of Urban and Country Bushland in Western Australia
Quenda is the Noongar Aboriginal name for this resilient and energetic ground-dwelling marsupial with a reputation for being a serious digger and, thereby, an important eco-system engineer enabling the growth of flora in urban and country bushland. Also known as the Southern Brown Bandicoot, it is a medium-sized ground-dwelling marsupial endemic (or native and restricted to) the 30-kilometre wide Swan Coastal plain stretching from Guilderton, north of Perth to Esperance. Sadly, Quenda are listed both in Western Australia and internationally as being a species at high risk of global extinction. They have suffered drastic population decline post-European settlement in Australia due to land clearing for human development, and predation by feral species.
A marker characteristic of the Quenda is its elongated snout, supported by conical shaped mandibles or jawbones. It is this snout and strong foreclaws which enable one Quenda to displace nearly 11 kilograms of soil a day, or 3.9 tonnes of soil each year in a search for favourite buried foods. These soil disturbances via nose pokes, scratchings, deep digs and complex subterranean burrows, drive eco-system processes which make Quendas invaluable to maintenance of healthy bushland - and for that matter of plant growth in your own backyard where they may be living. They can be mistaken for rats due to their similar coarse dark grey or yellow-brown fur and short rounded ears, but are distinguished by their snouts and lightly furred tails – that is if they still have a tail. Quendas are ferocious fighters and they combat each other regularly to guard their territories, often losing their tails in the process!
Quendas tend to be solitary and prefer dense understory vegetation for protection, living in scrubby and often swampy areas with cover up to a metre high. They construct a dome-shaped nest in well-concealed vegetation for protection when resting or breeding. They forage incessantly, usually at night, but sometimes during the day, for a range of invertebrates including earthworms, beetles and ants as well as plant roots, tubers and truffle buried underground.
Digging into the soil with their eyes shut, they use their strong foreclaws to make a conical hole and probe with their nose. By turning over large volumes of soil they bring about several main ecological processes encouraging plant growth including: mixture of organic matter and thereby soil heterogeneity, water infiltration which increases soil moisture content; seed dispersal and plant recruitment; and fungal dispersal and recruitment. They have a symbiotic relationship with plants, engineering benefits for their growth, while, in turn, plants provide Quenda with shelter and food.
Another distinctive characteristic of the Quenda is that their young are carried in a pouch. Quendas breed throughout the year with a peak in spring. The females have a backward opening pouch to prevent dirt from entering which contain 8 teats and accommodate 2 to 4 young in a litter. The mortality rate of juveniles is usually high, and lifespan in the wild is only around 3-4 years.
It’s important to look after this resilient, yet fragile, species with an important ecological role as a soil-systems eco-engineer. Its resilience lies in the fact that Quendas manage to still be present despite their categorization as a species facing global extinction.
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