Australian Gliders - efforts to put elusive species on the map
Hannah Cattanach
Plum Gorgeous is thrilled to join the Queensland Glider Network on a project designed to put two elusive and threatened marsupial species on the map.
Recently launched by Wildlife Queensland, the project will research and document the distribution of yellow-bellied gliders and greater gliders in South East Queensland.
Both species are threatened with extinction in Australia. Gliders are extremely vulnerable to bushfires and deforestation — threats that have been unprecedentedly intense in QLD in recent years.
Plum Gorgeous is the latest Land for Wildlife sanctuary to be included as a monitoring site for the project, which aims to strengthen understanding and conservation efforts for these Australian treasures.
We look forward to welcoming the project team later in the year!
Glider Update - 22 September 2020
Great news from the team at the Yellow Bellied Glider Project this week with a recorded sighting of the furry glider in Logan, south of Brisbane. Footage is available on the Queensland Glider Network Facebook page.
Fingers crossed, it may lead to the discovery of a new colony of furry gliders to be added to the conservation map!
While sightings are rare, the yellow bellied glider is the noisiest of glider species, which can alert residents and researchers to their whereabouts. They communicate with piercing calls that can be heard 500m away.
Glider Update - 8 November 2020
Two new native mammals have been discovered in Australia, with genetic research revealing that the East Coast is home to not one but three types of greater glider.
The variation of species was discovered through a DNA study by researchers from The Australian National University, James Cook University, the University of Canberra and CSIRO.
The results have been published in Nature's Scientific Reports, and we send our congratulations to all involved.
Discoveries like this are part of what make scientific and community-based biodiversity research so exciting, like the Yellow Bellied Glider Project that is underway in South East Queensland. To learn more and get involved in that project, visit the Queensland Glider Network.
Images courtesy of Josh Bowell of the Yellow Bellied Glider Project,
and the Moonlit Sanctuary, Victoria.