Illustration from *The Perfect Hollow: A Greater Glider Story*, Author: Cate Storey, Illustrator, Sarah Matsuda, published by Wet Season Books.

Greater gliders are uniquely Australian, gliding marsupials that live in hollows in tall eucalypt trees. I’m starting the week with some interesting greater glider facts to share with your friends, family or school.

1. Gum-leaf eaters

Like the iconic koala, the greater glider is a gum-leaf-eater and has favourite feed trees, including the lemon scented gum (Corymbia citriodora), grey box (Eucalyptus moluccana) and forest red gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis).

2. Hollow dependant

Eating gum leaves can make you slow and sleepy. Rather than depending on speed to escape danger, greater gliders rely on a network of familiar den trees to quickly hide from predators.

3. Not just any tree

Greater gliders reside high in the canopy. They prefer to feed from trees with a diameter greater than 30cm (about the size of an adult hug) and live in hollows in trees with a diameter greater than 50cm. An individual glider uses between 4 and 18 den sites, within small home ranges of approximately 1.5 hectares. This means gliders need quality habitat, with many mature hollow-bearing trees. With hollows often taking over 100 years to form, greater gliders are very vulnerable to habitat loss from logging, development and intense bushfires.

4. Very rare

Once widespread across Eastern Australia, greater gliders had no listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) only six years ago. In 2016 they were listed as Vulnerable (to extinction) and this year this listing was updated to Endangered. Research published in The Conversationfound that after the greater glider was listed as Vulnerable, destruction of its habitat actually increased in some states. For many, the greater glider has become a symbol of Australia’s failing environmental laws.

5. Vulnerable to a heating climate

Greater gliders’ physiology and eucalypt diet makes them vulnerable to higher temperatures and extreme weather events, specifically a greater number of nights above 20 degrees C and prolonged drought. Greater gliders also need appropriately insulated hollows, which can be hard to replace with man-made alternatives.

Along with the threat posed by logging and clearing for development, more severe storms, droughts, and intense bushfires driven by climate change, mean a loss of hollow bearing trees.

One of the most harrowing images emerging from the 2020 bushfires was of scared greater gliders, attempting to flee and becoming tangled in barbed wire fencing, which is particularly hazardous to Australia’s gliding marsupials.

6. People like you are fighting to protect them

On Sunday night, 2 October 2022, 66 citizen scientists conducted a nocturnal survey of 12 areas identified on the Victorian government’s current timber harvesting plan or its proposed plan. They found 60 greater gliders! The findings of the night survey should now trigger the terms of a temporary court injunction to prevent logging in the 12 areas where the greater gliders were found.

Kinglake Friends of the Forest (KFF) and Environment East Gippsland (EEG) have an ongoing case against government owned logging company VicForests, in that state’s Supreme Court. KFF and EEG believe VicForests has failed to properly survey for threatened species, including the greater glider and yellow-bellied glider.

7. Detection dogs

Finding greater gliders in no easy task. Residing high in the canopy, greater gliders can be challenging to detect through traditional spotlighting surveys. The insulation provided by their fluffy fur also makes them difficult to find using thermal imaging, often used to detect koalas.

Detection dogs have come to the rescue. Trained to sniff out the greater glider’s scats (poo), much smaller than possum scats, detection dogs can help identify where spotlighting efforts should focus.

The more data we have on greater gliders and where they can be found, the greater our opportunity to protect this unique Australian treasure.

8. Their habitats may be closer than you think

Greater gliders have been found in bushland close to (and sometimes within) Australia’s east coast capital cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne). This means that development decisions within our local government areas can have direct impacts on the animal’s survival.

9. Three distinct species

Once considered a single species, recent research has revealed that northern, central and southern greater glider populations are genetically distinct and should be separated into three different species: Petauroides minor, Petauroides armillatus and Petauroides volans.

10. Gliding, fluffy, gorgeous but not well known

Greater gliders are Australia’s largest gliding marsupial. Their gliding membrane extends from their elbows to their ankles. They can glide up to 100m and use their tail to steer as they glide between trees. Their fluffy, thick fur is found in a range of colours from deep brown to almost white.

Despite their obvious charm, greater gliders are far less familiar than Australia’s most famous gum-leaf eater, the koala, or the sweet as pie sugar glider. Once people get to know them, they have no trouble winning hearts and minds.

Like many Australia’s rare mammals, raising their profile is important for ensuring their future protection.

"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught" (Baba Dioum, 1968.)

Cover Image: *The Perfect Hollow: A Greater Glider Story*, Author: Cate Storey, Illustrator, Sarah Matsuda, published by Wet Season Books.

About the author of this blog:

Cate Storey is a children’s author and founder of Wet Season Books. Cate writes stories that celebrate Australia’s unique landscapes, wildlife and ecology. Her second book, The Perfect Hollow, illustrated by Sarah Matsuda, follows one greater glider’s search for the perfect hollow, with some scary, hairy and amusing adventures along the way.

The Greater Glider: Gliding, Fluffy and Gorgeous!

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