The considerable ecological health of Far South Coast national parks has been proven again following the discovery of another Spotted-tailed Quoll in heathland within Nadgee Nature Reserve, south of Eden.

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has made available today the first ever  photograph of a quoll in Nadgee Nature Reserve captured on a remote, movement sensitive, digital camera in February.

With only one previous record of the quoll on the periphery of the reserve over 20 years ago, it was an image which surprised NPWS and University of NSW Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) scientists who installed dozens of remote cameras within the reserve to detect native fauna activity.

NPWS ecologist, Dr Andrew Claridge, said today that finding a quoll in the reserve is very good news.

"It was a great surprise. This is a reserve that has been monitored intensively for almost 40 years with only one quoll record on the southern boundary two decades ago.

"Aside from being a threatened species the Spotted-tailed Quoll, is a carnivore at the top of the food chain. For it to exist here, even in small numbers, indicates that there is a robust population of smaller prey species.

"This is now the third quoll we've captured on camera in less than a year occupying the coastal heathland in the two major reserves between Eden and the Victorian border.

"This is not what previously would have been regarded as optimum habitat because we have always associated quolls with tall moist forests, not the waist deep heathland of the Far South Coast.

"The discovery of the quoll and its broader implications for the health of the environment within these reserves is supported by the consistent photographs we are capturing of Long-nosed Potoroos, Southern Brown Bandicoots, Eastern Pygmy Possums and White-footed Dunnarts. They are all listed as endangered and they are the prey items for a quoll.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the current healthy state of the ecosystems at Ben Boyd National Park and Nadgee Nature Reserve has been heavily influenced by a consistent fox baiting program in Ben Boyd and good management across both.

"All of this information paints a picture of some very healthy conservation reserves with relatively low   fox numbers and healthy populations of native species which are regarded elsewhere as struggling," Dr Claridge said.