Vocalisations of adult Northern Quolls, Dasyurus hallucatus.

Abstract

Vocalisations of Northern Quolls, Dasyurus hallucatus, were recorded during staged interactions between pairs of the same sex and different sexes. Four types of vocalisations were identified: 'hisses', 'sniffs', 'squawks' and 'twitters'. No pure ultrasonic calls were identified, although frequencies of twitters and sniffs extended into the ultrasonic range. All vocalisations were broadband, noisy sounds, with little evidence of harmonic structure or frequency modulation. Vocalisations of D. hallucatus are compared with data for other dasyurid species, and the correlation between frequencies of vocalisations and maximum sensitivity of the brain auditory pathway is discussed.