Mahogany gliders on camera

The results are in from wildlife cameras in creekside trees on cane land south of Ingham – and the good news is that mahogany gliders have been recorded.

In amongst several thousand images, two mahogany gliders were seen in trees in the early hours of the morning.

Terrain NRM’s Evizel Seymour says the cameras were up for six weeks.

“We saw one mahogany glider at about 3am on four or five nights. It was active in a thin corridor of trees bordering a creek and cane land, a place where they haven’t been recorded on camera before. We saw another mahogany glider once, at a creekside area further north.”

Importance of riparian vegetation as wildlife corridors

The trees are part of a thin corridor connecting the ranges with the coast in the Bambaroo-Yuruga area, and installing cameras was the first stage in a project to improve mahogany glider habitat in that area.

Terrain NRM is partnering with Hinchinbrook Shire Council to clear vines and woody weeds from creekside vegetation to create a functional green corridor for mahogany gliders. These elusive marsupials are only found between Tully and Ollera Creek, north of Townsville, and they are listed as endangered. Their favourite kind of habitat, broad-leafed tea tree woodlands, is also listed as endangered.

“This project follows monitoring work and research in the last few years to learn more about mahogany gliders, the boundaries of their habitat, where the remaining small populations live, how their genetic health is going and how we can best help them to survive,’’ Terrain NRM’s Evizel Seymour says.

“The area we are working in now is known to have a small population of mahogany gliders, thanks to the monitoring work over the last three years. That’s exciting because it’s largely cane land and because it’s close to Paluma and Halifax Bay national parks. If we can better link areas it’ll be a big help to these gliders.”