Greater gliders going extinct, Australia

Problems

• After its neighbour Indonesia, Australia has the second-largest number of endemic species – plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. Since colonisation, Australia has lost 34 mammals, which is about the same number as the rest of the world combined over the past 200 years. One of these animals is Gizmo.
  
  Gizmo is a greater glider, a cat-sized marsupial that can glide up to 100 metres through the air using a membrane between its legs. Gizmo lives in a patch of old-growth forest south of Brisbane, where he feeds on eucalyptus leaves and sleeps in hollow trees. Gizmo is one of the lucky ones. Many of his relatives have lost their homes and lives to logging, bushfires, urbanization and climate change.
  
  The greater glider, the largest gliding mammal in the world, is now officially endangered in Queensland, according to the federal government’s list of threatened species. The species has also been moved from vulnerable to endangered on the national level, following the advice of the government’s threatened species scientific committee.
  
  Within its large territory, the glider needs up to 20 dens in tree hollows to spend days sleeping. The trouble is these dens can only be found in old-growth trees. Trees take up to 250 years to form hollows, and we are losing these old trees by the day. Australia has the highest rate of deforestation in the developed world, with more than one tree bulldozed in the country every second.
  
  The greater glider population has declined by more than 80% over the past 20 years due to multiple threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation, predation by feral cats and foxes, disease, drought and fire. The committee also noted that the greater glider was highly sensitive to temperature and humidity changes, making it vulnerable to the effects of global heating.
  
  The black summer bushfires of 2019 and 2020, which overlapped with about 40% of the greater glider’s habitat, had likely “greatly reduced” the glider population, but firm numbers were not known, the committee said. The fires destroyed millions of hectares of native forests, including some of the most important refuges for the greater glider, such as the Blue Mountains and East Gippsland3.
  
  The greater glider is not one species but three, according to genetic research published in 2020. The latest advice on the gliders relates to the most widespread of the three, with the Latin name Petauroides volans, which ranges from north Queensland to central Victoria. The other two species, Petauroides minor and Petauroides armillatus, are found in northern and southern Queensland, respectively, and their conservation status is yet to be assessed.
  
  According to the IUCN Red List, the total population size of Greater Gliders is 50,000-500,000 mature individuals. This species’ numbers are decreasing and is currently classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List.
  
  Conservationists and experts have welcomed the recognition of the Greater Glider’s endangered status but have also called for urgent action to protect its habitat and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to WWF Australia, we must stop logging and clearing greater glider habitats and restore what has been lost or degraded. We must also tackle the root cause of climate change, which is driving more frequent and severe bushfires and droughts. 
  
  The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland has launched an appeal to fund a new greater glider project to collect data on the glider’s habitat preferences and movement patterns and install nest boxes and data loggers to monitor their well-being.
  
  Gizmo and his fellow greater gliders need our help. They are unique and irreplaceable members of Australia’s biodiversity and deserve a chance to survive and thrive in their natural environment. We can make a difference for these amazing animals by supporting conservation efforts and demanding policy changes.  It's the only way we can work towards protecting those native forests that remain - the forests that our dwindling populations of greater gliders and koalas now rely on.