16 October 2019
Greater Glider at Sheep Station Creek Conservation Park. Image © Jasmine Zeleny
Wildlife Queensland’s Queensland Glider Network is proud to have been awarded funding under the Moreton Bay Regional Council community grants program to help protect greater gliders in the Moreton Bay Region.
The $3,139 grant from Moreton Bay Regional Council will be used to provide nest boxes for the greater glider in Sheep Station Creek Conservation Park in Caboolture, Queensland, creating essential hollow shelters for this vulnerable species.
Sheep Station Creek Conservation Park is home to a healthy population of vulnerable greater gliders. The park’s proximity to the Moreton Bay community provides Wildlife Queensland’s Queensland Glider Network (QGN) with an excellent opportunity to engage and educate people on the conservation issues faced by this species.
“Nest boxes and associated monitoring programs create opportunities to facilitate community engagement while conducting a conservation program for a vulnerable species,” says Wildlife Queensland Projects Manager Matt Cecil.
The QGN installed 18 nest boxes in the park in December 2017 to learn more about greater glider nest box use (see previous story. The project design included two nest boxes per tree (5m and 10m installation heights) on nine trees, including regular monitoring. Greater gliders were observed in nest boxes installed at 10m; no evidence of occupation by any glider species has been observed in nest boxes at 5m.
Thanks to the community grant funding from Moreton Bay Regional Council, this project will see the nine, 5m high nest boxes relocated into other areas within the reserve to maximise nest box availability for greater gliders. An additional 7 new Hollow Log Homes nest boxes will be installed as well.
Installation sites have been chosen based on a series of spotlight surveys conducted by the QGN in April 2019.
Nest box monitoring survey opportunities
As part of the QGN greater glider nest box project, we will run 3 daytime nest box monitoring surveys – surveying all of the 25 boxes installed within the park. We’re going to need plenty of volunteer help, so please keep your eyes open for volunteering opportunities on our What’s On page and QGN page.
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