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These include developing a vaccine for elephants against a deadly virus; the creation of genetically modified marsupials in Australia known as quoll to be resistant to neurotoxins produced by their predator, the cane toad; and reintroducing genetic diversity in the pink pigeon in Mauritius.

The Curtin University-led study has identified three new species of mulgaras, which are small carnivorous marsupials related to the Tasmanian Devil and quoll and that are important to the arid and semi-arid regions they inhabit in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

They injected cane toads too small to kill a quoll with thiabendazole, an antiparasitic agent that induces nausea, and fed them to captive juvenile quolls.

Medellín Legorreta says it was inspired by an innovative rescue of Australia’s northern quoll.

In Far North Queensland, FNQ Nature Tours takes visitors on day-long treks in search of the spotted-tail quoll — a marsupial that is endangered and, like its cousin the Tasmanian devil, also carnivorous.