Improving conservation outcomes for Greater Gliders in SE Queensland #shorts

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]We bought this beautiful property.

[00:00:04]We were lying in bed and we saw this little creature climb up a tree and then fly from one tree to the next.

[00:00:12]And that's the very first time we'd ever seen a glider in real life. [music] We didn't know what sort, but then when the NESP project came along, we thought, "Oh, maybe they're greater gliders."

[00:00:20]>> [music] >> Uh so, we thought we'd join and find out.

[00:00:24]This research [music] project is funded under the National Environmental Science Program Resilient Landscape Hub [music] to try to improve conservation outcomes on private properties.

[00:00:34]Private properties [music] can form really important pockets of habitat that exist between protected land already.

[00:00:40]City of Gold Coast joined the NESP [music] project because we wanted to be part of a broader collaboration. We thought it would be great to be joining up [music] with the other local councils. So, through Land for Wildlife, we can engage with landholders, increase their [music] capacity and knowledge of biodiversity on their property, and to see what they can do to help [music] greater gliders.

[00:00:59]On this project, we're enlisting the help of detection dog Austin to hunt down greater [music] glider scat.

[00:01:06]Landowners may be unaware that greater gliders are living in trees on their properties.

[00:01:11]Good job.

[00:01:14]Once a scat's been detected, we then go about identifying the trees [music] that the greater gliders may have been occupying.

[00:01:22]It's been great [music] to get that information from the detection dog to then be able [music] to go out and spotlight to find those individual greater gliders and then have more of an idea of where the habitat is. Essentially, what we're looking for is eye shine or irregular movement in the leaves. When [music] you actually see a greater glider in the wild and you're with the landholders themselves, there's no better high than that.

[00:01:50]People really feel compassion and they have a greater [music] connection to their land. We've developed a project for each of the Land for Wildlife groups at each council and we engage with them [music] directly through iNaturalist and provide links to resources that we've developed like identification guides, [music] workshops, and also targeted surveys on their properties as well.

[00:02:11]It's a really big [music] ask to expect landholders to restore country that have maybe been degraded [music] for the last 200 years. So, this is a really important research project [music] and it fills a research gap because it really looks at what governments can do to support landholders to do conservation. It's a win-win for everyone. [music] Whether it's just uploading species to iNaturalist or restoring the habitat on their properties or even just planting native species in their gardens, I think it's really important that we recognize everyday landholders as citizen scientists and the contributions [music] that they make to conservation. You've got even the tiniest little bit of land, you can do something towards preserving and improving it. There's really no reason not to be involved.