HAVE you ever met a rare and endangered greater glider?
BEAM Mitchell Environment Group is running a series of spotlight survey nights over the next two months at the Tallarook and Mount Disappointment Forests.
Greater Gliders are nocturnal and are a similar size to cats. They can glide up to 100 metres because they have a membrane between their elbows and ankles which becomes its wings when they stretch out all fours.
Usually, the marsupial is jet black in colour with a white belly, and they have a long bushy tail up to one metre in length (at maturity) and finally they have adorable, furry ears.
BEAM Mitchell Environment Group is partnering with Biolinks Alliance to conduct these surveys as part of the Murchison Gap Greater Glider Biolink project funded by the Capricorn Foundation.
The total count after five years of surveying is over 200 Greater Gliders sightings and by learning where the wildlife is living, the environmentalists hope to take action to protect, restore and extend their habitat.
The surveys also find Gang Gang cockatoos, koalas, sugar gliders, Powerful owls, Boobook owls, tawny frogmouths, and most rarely, a huddle of Dusky Woodswallows. Other species include the mountain Brushtail, Common Brushtail and Ringtail possums.
The walking distance will be two to three kilometres for each night walk, but because of the frequent stopping to survey, each walk will take two to three hours.
A general level of fitness for walking is advisable. All survey routes will be on vehicle roads, but some sections may be steep, rocky, or muddy.
To Join BEAM for one of the Greater Glider night-walk surveys, scan the QR code on page five of today’s edition of the North Central Review.
