Wildlife Queensland - Squirrel Glider Project at Lower Duck Creek - Wildlife Australia Guide

Squirrel glider habitat recovery project

Bill O'Sullivan's farm at Lower Duck Creek is a key location, as part of a broader Scenic Rim network,  for a habitat recovery project to assist the endangered squirrel glider.

The project is being led by the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland (Wildlife Queensland) with the help of volunteers  across the region. Local farmers, like Bill O'Sullivan are assisting with tree planting and monitoring wildlife motion-sensor cameras that detect the squirrel gliders and other species. 

In a recent interview with Wildlife Queensland Scenic Rim Branch, Bill O'Sullivan said of the progress on his property: 

“We’ve had about nine of these cameras out for the whole time we’ve been here, a bit over six years. We’ve got quite a big population of squirrel gliders. Even with the recent bushfires in December (2019), the cameras up on the hill were still picking up lots of squirrel gliders.

"We are optimistic they are still there. We think they are amazing creatures and we just want them to maintain their habitat and continue to breed and hopefully thrive to the numbers they should be. “

BACKGROUND: The Scenic Rim Squirrel Glider Project

Scenic Rim is part of the third-highest area of biodiversity in Australia and it is a haven for the endangered squirrel glider. The five species of glider found across this region include greater, yellow-tailed, squirrel, sugar and feathertail.

The Wildlife Queensland Scenic Rim Branch is building wildlife corridors across the region, focusing on squirrel glider habitat. Establishing secure areas of habitat for squirrel gliders also assists associated wildlife species including glossy black cockatoos, koalas and grey crowned babblers, according to Dr Ronda Green, Wildlife Queensland Scenic Rim Branch president.

“The one we are focusing on is the squirrel glider,” Dr Green said. “Most gliders live in dense mountain forests, relatively well protected by national parks and other reserves. But the squirrel glider prefers lowland, more open forests which are more fragmented and less protected,” Dr Green said.

These squirrel glider enclaves tend to be largely on private land and there are bare areas in between that Wildlife Queensland volunteers are hoping to connect.

In 2014 and 2015 the branch conducted glider workshops and surveys seeking gliders, especially squirrel gliders, funded by the Scenic Rim Regional Council. The surveys looked at where they were located, what that habitat was like, what they were eating, and what sort of resources they were using.

Methods used were nocturnal searches and motion-sensing cameras. Mostly volunteers were informed by a series of workshops showing how to identify gliders and their ecology threats and what could be done to help them.

Squirrel and sugar gliders are hard to distinguish in the wild. According to Dr Green, the sugar glider is smaller and it has more of a snub nose, plus the tail is less bushy. Occasionally the sugar glider will have a white-tipped tail. The squirrel glider never has a white-tipped tail, but if a glider does not have a white-tipped tail it may be either type.

“The squirrel glider’s tail is really bushy even at the base where it comes out of the body,” Dr Green said. “The squirrel glider is also much more insectivorous than the other gliders.”

Footage from the survey produced rare night footage of a glider landing on a tree at the farm of  Bill O’Sullivan at Duck Creek Road.

Also recorded was a brush-tailed phascogale at Barney View and a northern brown bandicoot at Kooralbyn. The first sighting of a squirrel glider on the nightly volunteer searches in the original surveys was on the Destiny Eco-cottages property at Wallaces Creek near Boonah.

Dr Green said the research mapped many clusters and, in between, a lot of cleared land.

“Fragmentation causes impediments to movements,” Dr Green said. “Gliders need to move daily from resting to feeding areas, to seek additional food sources in lean times, to find a mate (and if restricted to a fragment there can be deleterious inbreeding) – and to escape natural or man-made threats such as severe fire or clear-felling of habitat.

“They need trees or higher places to glide from. They can put up glider poles to help, which works very well.”

Squirrel gliders mostly eat nectar, pollen, gum, sap and insects. They are pollinators – but research does not yet reveal how important they are in that role – and they may be occasional seed dispersers.

“They seem to be doing okay here (in the hubs) at the moment, but as I say it is not really well protected,” Dr Green said.

Hubs are found to be at Kooralbyn, Mt Alford, Duck Creek and the NSW borderlands.

“Much of the land between the sightings is privately owned and thus not secure,” Dr Green said.

Dr Green said to get things started, a Wildlife Queensland campaign led by Amanda Little raised $5000 for establishing corridors. A Federal Government Community Environment Program grant added $10,200.  Scenic Rim Regional Council (SRRC) is also contributing plants, public relations and other services. Energex will donate old telegraph poles to establish as glider poles.

The aim is to establish the hubs – where there are clusters and sightings in secure habitats – and then provide movement corridors between them.

More research to build effective corridors

Scenic Rim branch volunteers are now engaged in more intense surveys to act as a baseline study for future comparison. This happening along with the planting of corridors and erection of glider poles; enhancement of habitat in hubs with food plants and nest boxes; plantings for other species; ongoing maintenance of plants; and monitoring ‘relative abundance’ in core areas and corridors.

Plants being focussed on are winter flowering plants, Dr Green said, including Eucalyptus tereticornis, E. robusta, E. sideroxylon, Banksia intergrifolia and Banksia spinulosa. Other nectar plants are Xanthorrhoea spp and Callistemon viminalis. For gum and sap they are planting Acacia spp, Corymbia eucalyptus.

“We also planted species that are relatively fire retardant and that grow naturally in the Scenic Rim, or very close, and provide food for other wildlife species as well,” Dr Green said.

Hollows are proving critical

Dr Green warned that the squirrel gliders appeared to need more than one nesting hollow to move between. Plus, they compete for hollows with other large species.

“Trees can take over 100 years to start forming hollows,” Dr Green said. “Nesting boxes can assist in areas with few mature trees.”

She said the nesting boxes that suited squirrel gliders were designed with small rear entries, facing the trunk, to help deter competitors and predators. They should be positioned at least 3m above the ground.

To get involved in this project, contact Wildlife Queensland Scenic Rim Branch:

Website:  https://wildlife.org.au/scenicrim

E-mail:   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.