Australia's largest flying marsupial the greater glider has been spotted in a forest west of Brisbane. The endangered species was last sighted in the Deongwar state forest in the late nineties then last week a group of ecologists spotted one while walking down a fire-trail.
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00:00 So it was an incredibly quiet night.
00:04 We were walking along a fire line, as you said, and normally you would hear a booble
00:09 gowl or a sugar glider or something off in the distance, but I'd started to lose hope
00:13 that we might see anything at all because, yeah, there was nothing calling, no signs.
00:19 But then after about 400 metres, I saw some really bright eyeshine off into the distance
00:23 with my torch.
00:24 So I yelled to my colleague, Paul Reavy, "I've got eyeshine.
00:28 You need to go up to that tree and have a look at what it is."
00:30 Wasn't sure if it was a possum or a glider, and sure enough, it was a greater glider.
00:34 And those are some pretty awesome ears that the greater glider has, huh?
00:40 Yeah, they're pretty spectacular animals.
00:42 So that little one's a sugar glider, which most people might be familiar with.
00:46 And then we've got the dark morph and the light morph greater gliders as well.
00:50 Yeah, cool.
00:51 So what makes this sighting so special and how excited were you to actually see it?
00:56 I'm always excited to see a greater glider, but particularly in an area that's undergone
01:01 logging, it's really, really important to know that these threatened species are still
01:05 there.
01:06 It is also a good indicator that, you know, in the future, when these trees regrow after
01:11 logging, that this is really good future habitat for a greater glider population.
01:16 But unfortunately, those trees will take up to 150 years to form hollows that are big
01:20 enough for a greater glider.
01:22 Yeah, so just this one, that one with the little ears is the sugar glider.
01:25 We'll make that clear to our viewers.
01:27 And the ones with the big ears are the greater gliders.
01:30 So how widespread were the gliders 50 years ago?
01:34 50 years ago, greater gliders were considered common in eucalyptus forest all up the east
01:40 coast of Australia.
01:42 And so if you went out at night with a torch, they don't vocalise.
01:45 So you have to look for them with your eyes, unfortunately.
01:49 You'd be very likely to see one in eucalyptus forest as long as those hollows were present.
01:54 And so logging has now stopped in this Deongwa State Forest that you're in.
01:59 It's kind of northeast of Toowoomba, between Toowoomba and Esk.
02:02 What are your hopes about how quickly the greater gliders will grow in numbers there
02:08 now?
02:09 Yeah, so greater gliders, they need those large hollow bearing trees.
02:13 And because it will take about 150 years for those new growth trees to form hollows, it's
02:18 a slow burn.
02:20 But I am hopeful that maybe with some community input or government investment or private
02:25 investment, we can supplement some of that critical habitat by installing nest boxes
02:30 appropriately, which will also serve as habitat for greater gliders.
02:33 Yeah.
02:34 And so what's involved in the process of making nest boxes and getting them in the right place?
02:39 Do you get involved in that?
02:40 Yeah, absolutely.
02:42 I'm not very handy myself, so I'm not out with the tools.
02:45 But I do know of a few designs that are suitable for greater gliders.
02:48 So they're really, really susceptible to thermal stress.
02:53 So they need to be quite well insulated.
02:55 If you think of a natural tree hollow, it's got that xylem around it, it's got the trunk
02:59 around it.
03:00 It's actually quite cool inside.
03:02 So you need to make sure that they're thick enough that they're well insulated.
03:05 And they also need to be put high, high up in the trees.
03:08 So you want them at least 10 meters up in trees because greater gliders feed on leaves
03:13 like koalas do.
03:14 And they very, very seldom come low down into trees.
03:17 And why would you when you can glide?
03:20 And do they have to be relatively big if they've got insulation around them?
03:26 Exactly.
03:27 So the ones that I've dealt with are about 13 kilos each.
03:31 They're quite heavy.
03:32 You need ropes to climb up the trees.
03:36 And what can you tell us about the situation with...
03:40 Oh, there's a great shot of one of the...
03:42 Is that a greater glider in action?
03:43 Yes, it is.
03:45 When they're gliding, membrane actually attaches to their elbows.
03:48 So when they're gliding, they have to put their arms up, really cute.
03:52 And then that's how they travel between the trees.
03:54 And what's the situation more broadly in South East Queensland with state forests being converted
03:59 to conservation areas?
04:01 Yeah, well, we definitely welcome any conversion to the protected areas to state.
04:07 So the Queensland Government has committed to transitioning state forests to either conservation
04:11 park or national park under the Nature Conservation Act, which means that those areas will not
04:16 be logged in the future, which is great news.
04:19 And so how confident are you about the future for the greater glider in South East Queensland?
04:25 Mixed confidence.
04:27 They're very susceptible to bushfires.
04:29 So the 2019-20 bushfires actually triggered them to be listed as endangered under federal
04:34 legislation.
04:35 And we know our protected areas are not free from bushfires, which can have catastrophic
04:40 consequences for these beautiful animals.
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