TASSIE’S CUTEST IMPOSTER REVEALED

Time to strike glider’s protected status?

WILDLIFE experts are pushing for sugar gliders to be stripped of their protection under Tasmania’s Nature Conservation Act, following confirmation that they do not belong in Tasmanian wilderness areas.

A scientific report published last month in the journal Diversity and Distributions has confirmed that the iconic Australian marsupials are not native to Tasmania and were most likely introduced as pets, as far back as the 1830s.

Question marks have hung over the cute little animal, which can glide between trees using a membrane stretched between all four of its legs, since the startling 2014 dis- covery that they feast on adult swift parrots and their chicks, which are among Tasmania’s most endangered species.

The report’s author Catriona Campbell from the University of Canberra, and Chris Johnson, a University of Tasmania ecologist, said they were concerned that the glider could bee one of the final nails in the swift parrot’s coffin, which was now dependant on human intervention for its survival.

“Unless well managed it is probably the thing that’s going to drive them to extinction quickest,’’ Prof Johnson said.

The Difficult Bird Research Group, led by Australian National University researchers, hasha developed trap door mechanis to keep sugar gliders away from swift parrot nests and is leading the push to have the gliders’ protected status removed. “Sugar gliders are widespread in Tasmania, but not at high [population] levels,” Dr Campbell said. She said widespread culling or eradication was not a realistic option for controlling shy, nocturnal sugar gliders. Mr Johnson said disturb- ance caused by forestry activity appeared to be causing sugar gliders to come into closer contact with swift parrots.

He said swift parrots, which only nested in Tasmania, appeared to be the only birds that were vulnerable to sugar gliders, which normally fed on insects, sap, nectar and small reptiles. Other bird species and sugar gliders have learnt to live with each over a much longer time span interstate.

It is probably the thing that’s going to drive them to extinction quickest

— CHRIS JOHNSON