Community & Business
12 March, 2026
Hitchhikers guide to Taronga Western Plains Zoo!
One of the final cases of 2025 created the biggest stir at Taronga Western Plains Zoo's Wildlife Hospital.
By Jennifer Hoar
(Taronga Conservation Society Australia media and content officer)
Last year marked the busiest year yet for the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Dubbo, but it was one of the final cases of 2025 that created the biggest stir.
The hospital welcomed 837 wildlife cases through the doors in 2025, but on December 29 the team received an unusual request – to help get a stowaway out of the back of a Prado station wagon.
The Lyons family – Dan, his wife Peta, kids Aleisha, 22 and Jack, 20, and Smudge the cattle dog – had driven through the night from Far North Queensland to visit family in Dubbo.
“When we got to Dubbo, my daughter went to get her bag out and she said ‘oh, there's a quoll in here!’” said Dan.
The family had unknowingly brought a stowaway with them more than 2,400 kilometres from their property north of Cooktown, where threatened Northern Quolls are abundant in the surrounding bushland.
“When you look back, the dogs were chasing something around the car as I was packing for the trip, and they must have chased him in there just before we left,” Dan said.
“Smudge was trying to get into the back with the luggage, but we still didn’t pick up that there was something in there and because it was raining so heavily, we just kept driving through the night until we got to Dubbo.
“We thought ‘we can’t just let it out here!’ So we rang the Zoo to see if they could help. We took it to the quarantine building, but it ended up going into the lining of the car. It was a big anticlimax for everyone I think as it didn't even get out of the car!
“They gave us a cage trap and some food for bait and we set that up in the car, but he was so small he kept getting out. I ended up having to modify the trap, but we caught him and took him to the Zoo the next morning.”
Nicknamed ‘Stowie’ by the Lyons family, the juvenile male Northern Quoll was admitted to the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Dubbo where he underwent a full health check. Estimated to be between 4-5 months old, the quoll was found to be in good health after his adventure.
“I think his journey was probably quite stressful for him, being in a very strange environment with people, but considering all of that he actually held up beautifully,” said Senior Veterinarian Dr Alisa Wallace.
“Once he was here, he didn’t waste any time tucking into his food and that bodes really well for him going back to the wild. He’s been really resilient.
“Our next mission was then to get him home. His species doesn’t occur in NSW so it was really important to get him home.”
After six weeks at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Dubbo, Stowie doubled his body weight and received one final health check to confirm he was ready to be translocated back to Far North Queensland.
Taronga’s veterinary team worked closely with Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to coordinate the logistics, and after two flights and a four-hour drive from Cairns, the young quoll was successfully released back into the wild near where he was found.
Stowie was one of 837 wildlife cases that came through the hospital’s doors in 2025, and definitely “one of the most unusual”, as the species does not naturally occur in NSW.
Northern Quolls can be found across northern Australia, where they face threats from habitat loss, predation from cats and foxes and interactions with the toxic cane toad.
“It was really quite special to see a Northern Quoll down here, but it’s a threatened species which made it even more important to get him back home,” Dr Wallace said.
“We're really glad that we've been able to help him get back to where he's supposed to be and hopefully go and breed in the wild. He's finally back out there where he's meant to be.”
