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Ecologist 'burst into tears' seeing endangered gliders using boxes designed to save them

A third of the greater gliders' remaining habitat was destroyed in the Australian wildfires, and researchers didn't know if their high-tech box idea would work.

Mark Gillow/Flickr

Greater gliders are endangered in Australia and rely on old-growth tree hollows to make their nests.

When a team of Australian researchers started checking the high-tech boxes they'd installed to help save endangered greater gliders, they weren't sure what they were going to find. The hope was that the tree-dwelling marsupials would use them for nesting—a replacement for the tree hollows they normally nest in—but no one knew whether or not the creatures would take to them.

So when Dr. Kita Ashman, Threatened Species and Climate Adaptation Ecologist at WWF-Australia, found a glider in the second box she checked, she was thrilled.

"I just burst into tears, I was so surprised and so happy," she told ABC News Australia.

Greater gliders are nocturnal marsupials that live in old-growth forests of eastern Australia. They have large ears, fluffy fur, long tails, and they can glide up to 100 meters at a time. The species is only found in Australia.

"I grew up looking at greater gliders all throughout the Dandenong Ranges. So they have a really special place in my heart," said Dr. Ashman told ANU.

The special nesting boxes were designed and created through a partnership between Australian National University (ANU), Greening Australia and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia after bushfires destroyed a third of the greater gliders' remaining habitat. The tree hollows that greater gliders rely on to nest can take over 100 years to form, according to ANU, so it's not like they can just find some new trees to live in when their homes are destroyed.

Nesting boxes that are commonly used for wildlife aren't a good fit for greater gliders, as the thin walls and lack of thermal protection can result in gliders overheating. (Heat-stressed gliders will slow their eating, which can be life-threatening, according to ANU.) The high-tech boxes in this project are insulated and include a non-toxic, heat-reflective, fire-resistant coating to keep gliders safe.

"I've affectionately been calling this design the Goldilocks box because we hope it will keep greater gliders not too hot and not too cold and will help to increase the species' resilience in a changing climate," Ashman said in July 2022.

"Producing and installing high-quality nest boxes is costly," added ANU research fellow Dr. Kara Youngentob, "so this project is very important because it will help us understand if expensive interventions like nest boxes are the best use of funding in our urgent mission to save greater gliders."

It appears that their efforts are paying off.

"What we didn't know was whether these boxes worked and whether they have an impact on the glider population," Dr. Youngentob told ABC News Australia. "Much to our delight, within a few months of them going up they are already being used by gliders, so we know the individuals themselves like them and use them."

According to Youngentob, greater gliders are the largest gliding marsupial at risk of extinction. More than 200 nesting boxes have been installed in Victoria's East Gippsland and in Tallaganda National Park in New South Wales. Youngentob told ABC News Australia that this project will help researchers learn more about how many of the species are left in the wild.

The quiet, nocturnal marsupial faces threats from climate change and deforestation in addition to the wildfires that ravaged Australia in 2020. Their population has fallen by 80% in the past 20 years and the species reached endangered status in July of 2022.

"They're a treasure for this country." Dr. Youngentob told ANU. "And I think the more people know about them, the more that they will fall in love with them and want to protect them too."

This article originally appeared on 1.20.23

From Your Site Articles

australian wildlife

Behind the scenes of every cute baby panda, there's a mama bear.

True

On Sept. 4, 2016, the conservation status of giant pandas was updated from "endangered" to the less critical "vulnerable." That's great news!

After all, who wouldn't want to see more of these fluffy little faces in the world?‌‌

Ever wonder what a 5-month-old panda looks like? #worldwildlifefund #wwf #panda #babyanimals #adorable
A post shared by World Wildlife Fund (@world_wildlife) on Jul 3, 2013 at 2:13pm PDT

The announcement, made by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, came after a documented 17% rise in the wild panda population over about the last decade.

"The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity," stated Marco Lambertini, the director general of World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The public's reaction to an increase in baby pandas? "Awwwwwww."

GIF via Disneynature's "Born in China."

But there's someone else behind the scenes of these cute baby pandas and all the conservation efforts: the mother bears.

Panda cubs at breeding centers and zoos get a lot of help from their human caretakers. But for pandas in the wild, a strong mother-cub relationship is necessary for survival. Without it, all the international efforts to save the species would have no effect.

Here are a few things that make the mother-cub bond in pandas so special:

When baby pandas are born, they're about 1/900th of their mother's weight.‌

A newborn panda in an incubator. Image via iStock.‌

Newborn panda cubs average 3.5 ounces — about the size of a stick of butter. Yes, a stick of butter! They don't open their eyes for up to two months, and they're basically immobile for three.

Panda biologist Dr. David Kersey, an associate professor at Western University of Health Sciences, explains in an email, "Among mammals with placentas, the giant panda cub is the smallest offspring compared to the mother."

A young panda cub. Image via Disneynature's "Born in China."

Because they're born so early, wild panda cubs spend up to two years with just their mothers.

Newborn pandas are altricial, which means they're essentially helpless. For the first couple of weeks, Kersey writes, the mother rarely ventures outside the den, "spending nearly every waking moment rearing and nursing the cub." During this time, "she relies solely on energy reserves to sustain herself and milk production."

Even as the cub ages and the mother returns to foraging, it still relies on her for warmth, protection, food, and more.

Giant pandas don't live in groups and the males never stick around after mating, so the cubs spend time exclusively with their mother until they reach independence. For two years, the pair does everything together; every day is a lesson in survival.

By the time a wild panda cub leaves its mother, it has all the skills and knowledge it needs to survive on its own.

At around 14 months, cubs begin eating bamboo on their own. Between 18 and 24 months, they wean from the mother and the pair separates.

A mother panda and her cub. Image via Disneynature's "Born in China."

Giant pandas are still a vulnerable species, but their numbers are improving.

The WWF estimates that there are about 1,864 pandas left in the wild, spread across 20 or so pockets of bamboo forest. The species' biggest threat is habitat loss due to development in the region and climate change.

Image via Disneynature's "Born in China."

Despite their low numbers, the progress that pandas have made over the past decade is a great sign for the future.

But as Kersey writes: "Our work is certainly not done. The protections and efforts afforded to the giant panda while it was endangered helped in improving the species’ numbers." The future of the giant panda shouldn't have to rest solely on those mother bears. The species is going to need our help, too.

Want to learn more about these amazing animals? See "Born in China" during opening week and Disneynature will make a donation in your honor to the World Wildlife Fund to benefit wild pandas and other threatened species.

Watch the "Born in China" video here:

From Your Site Articles

What you need to know about the death of the rare Sumatran rhinoceros.

In late March 2016, World Wildlife Fund researchers celebrated the reappearance of the incredibly rare Sumatran rhino.

Image from International Rhino Foundation/WIkimedia Commons.

On March 12, 2016, a female Sumatran rhino was captured in a pit trap in the East Kalimantan province of Indonesian Borneo. It was the first time in 40 years that one had been seen in the flesh.

The World Wildlife Fund called her story a "new hope."

Just one month later, the celebration ended abruptly when the captured Sumatran rhino, named Najaq, has died.

A leg infection seems to have been the cause of death, although a post-mortem is still being conducted as of this writing.

Though Najaq's death is sad, there is good news to share.

For a long time, it was thought there were no more Sumatran rhinos in Kalimantan. There were only a small population on the Malaysian side of the island (declared extinct in 2015), so many people thought these animals were just about gone forever.

But we were wrong. And that's very, very good.

Unlike its more sparsely coiffed cousins, the Sumatran rhino is covered in hair. Image from Ltshears/Wikimedia Commons.

Sumatran rhinos are one of the most endangered large animals on the planet. There are estimated to be fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild.

In fact, up until 2013, when a World Wildlife Fund team found rhino footprints in the jungle (and managed to photograph a Sumatran rhino via an automatic camera trap), the species was considered extinct in Kalimantan.

We now know that at least 15 Sumatran rhinos still exist in Borneo.

15 is not a lot, but for an animal thought to be gone, it's a remarkable number.

Even better — we know how save them.

Sumatran rhinos, like many species in Borneo, are threatened by both poachers and habitat loss. They need the forests and jungles to survive, but many wild places are being destroyed to make room for mining, plantations, and logging operations.

This land was cleared for a palm oil plantation in Malaysian Borneo. Image from T. R. Shankar Raman/Wikimedia Commons.

By creating sanctuaries for these animals we can give them the homes they need to survive.

Sanctuaries like Way Kamblas National Park, for instance. Way Kamblas is a protected area in Sumatran Indonesia that is home to a number of Sumatran rhinos that are protected by their own anti-poaching squad.

A worker and Rosa the rhino, who was transported to Way Kamblas to help establish a breeding population. Image via Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images.

What's more, by supporting the use of sustainable palm oil (which is used in more products you every day than you can even imagine), which many companies are already doing, we can help protect the forests outside of these designated sanctuaries.

Najaq's death is sad, but we're being given an incredible opportunity to save a species once thought to be lost.

“We now have proof that a species once thought extinct in Kalimantan still roams the forests, and we will now strengthen our efforts to protect this extraordinary species,”said Dr. Efransjah, CEO of WWF-Indonesia, when they found Najaq in the pit trap.

Rosa the rhino in the Way Kambas Sanctuary. Image from Willem v Strien/Flickr.

Najaq may have died, but her life truly did give a new hope to the preservation of her species.

We have the opportunity. We know what to do. We just need to act.