The endangered Greater Glider… at my back door!

Also published here on Moggill Creek Catchment website

It’s incredible to believe that endangered Greater Gliders live right here in Brisbane, and I feel so grateful to share this land with these beautiful creatures!

A native nocturnal arboreal gliding marsupial, the Greater Glider is Australia’s largest glider weighing up to 1.3kg and capable of gliding for up to 100m. They’re also incredibly cute; and images of them often illicit soft sounds of affection from those that appreciate the need to support a population under pressure. Conservation work is essential to prevent the extinction of the species.

As current custodian of ‘Feathertail Nature Refuge’, which is protected under a Voluntary Conservation Covenant with Brisbane City Council and has Nature Refuge status through the Queensland Government, I was well aware of the presence of Greater Gliders on the property when I became the current custodian in 2017.  It was love at first sight when I saw one up in the towering Eucalypt canopy on a spotlighting walk.

So when Cody Hochen from Land for Wildlife approached me last year about applying for funding support from the Queensland Government Nature Refuge Landholder Grant program to improve habitat for Greater Gliders on the property, it was a big YES! We devised and were successful in receiving a grant to install and monitor 8 Habitat Modular Nest Boxes; placed high up in a variety of tree species in various locations on the property. The recent development of these modular plastic moulded nest boxes by Habitat Innovation and Management aims to replicate the characteristics of natural hollows, including using double-walled polypropylene and a timber insert to enhance insulation and match the microclimate provided by natural hollows.  The boxes are designed to last longer than traditional wooden ones and meet many other specific hollow characteristics required by the Greater Glider to thrive.   

Just days after the boxes were installed in Winter last year, I had the thrill of spotlighting a Greater Glider checking out one of the nest boxes.  You really can’t mistake their big fluffy tail and the way their eye shine lights up like yellow gemstones. It was a great beginning to the project. The intended follow up inspection earlier this year involved the team from Arborspec shimmying up each of the 8 trees to visually inspect each box for signs of use.  Half way through the day, before the arborists could reach one particular box with a camera, a Greater Glider sailed from the box into the canopy of the nearby tree; it was a wonderful result to see the boxes were in use. Three fauna cameras that had also been installed were brought down from the trees and after spending an entire weekend scrolling through thousands of images, I was overjoyed to find Feathertail Gliders (this property’s namesake), Squirrel Gliders, Sugar Gliders, Owlet Nightjars, Brush-tailed Phascogales, Common Brush-tail Possums, a Lace Monitor, all exploring and using the boxes. Most excitingly, however, were the photos revealing the shaggy coat and fluffy ears of a Greater Glider!  It left us wondering about the potential visitors to the other five nest boxes that didn’t have cameras. These results, while promising, underscore the critical need arboreal animals have for suitable habitats.  Housing is in short supply; natural hollows typically take more than 100 years to develop and there are over 300 animals that compete for these scarce resources.

The achievements of this grant have fuelled my motivation to install permanent cameras on some of the nest boxes to acquire long-term data on their use. I also aim to install more Habitat Modular Nest Boxes throughout the property, and I’m hopeful for continued collaboration with all partners involved.

Thanks to Cody Hochen, LFW, BCC for your input