Southern Greater Gliders
In December last year my daughter and I headed out to the Tallagandra National Park, 60km east of Canberra, Australia for a night of spotlighting. We had received a hot tip of a couple of grid references for tree hollows for Southern Greater Gilders. Scientists have been tracking the species health in Tallagandra since the ravaging fires of 2019/20.
The drive takes about an hour from Canberra, with the last 10km on dirt roads. Take it slow as the usual suspects on Australian bush roads are ubiquitous. We saw Eastern Grey Kangaroos, common wombats, several swamp wallabies, rabbits, two young foxes and even a large feral pig on the drive back to Canberra. The journey takes about an hour, through the Forbes Creek township (pop 62) and continue on the Forbes Creek Road to where it meets the Northern Black Range Fire Trail (35.442817° S, 149.54133° E). We parked at the junction and wandered up the trail. Wielding our torches at the trees, we were immediately excited by a number of eyes looking down at us. Unfortunately, they proved to be Tawny Frogmouths and a brush tail possum.
However, as we wandered further up the trail we found some eye shine high in a tree and confirmed a Greater Glider! (35.44237° S, 149.54324° E)
Over the next couple of hours, we found four more gliders and one annoyed wombat. We had a superb view of two gliders on the walk back, one a black morph and the other silvery grey, both the size of house cats.
We must have watched them for half an hour or more; waiting to see a glide. No luck, but what a fantastic mammal to see! Not a bad Monday night’s entertainment, instead of veging on the couch.
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