The northern quoll was first described in 1842 by naturalist and author John Gould, who gave it the specific epithet hallucatus, indicating that it has a notable first digit.

[5] This population genomic structure conforms to known biogeographic barriers across northern Australia, including the Carpentarian Gap and Ord Arid Region.

Northern quolls feed primarily on invertebrates, but also consume fleshy fruit (particularly figs), and a wide range of vertebrates, including small mammals, birds, lizards, snakes, and frogs.

[6] A February 2023 study published in Royal Society Open Science found that "reduced resting behaviour among males could explain the post-breeding death as the deterioration in appearance reflects that reported for sleep-deprived rodents.

Threats are predation by feral cats, dingoes and red foxes, particularly after fire or grazing has removed protective ground cover.

Destruction, degradation, and fragmentation of the quoll's habitat due to land clearing, grazing, pasture improvement, and mining are also significant.

[14] Cane toads were originally introduced in Queensland, but have now occupied the Top End of the Northern Territory, including Kakadu National Park and the Darwin area, and entered the Kimberley region of Western Australia, where they are established around Kununurra and Lake Argyle.

[16] In 2017, quolls from Astell Island were collected, trained via conditioned taste aversion to avoid attacking cane toads and reintroduced to Kakadu National Park.

Although the toad-trained quolls survived longer than those that received no toad training, ultimately this reintroduction population rapidly went extinct because of dingo predation.

This study suggests that animals conserved in complete isolation from predators can rapidly lose evolved antipredator behaviours, in this case in only 13 generations, when they are no longer maintained via natural selection.

[19] The Northern Quoll is known as njanjma[21] in the Indigenous Kundjeyhmi, Kundedjnjenghmi and Mayali languages, djabbo in Kunwinjku,[22][23][24] and wijingarri in Wunambal.