The Mahogany Glider, Petaurus gracilis, is a marsupial mammal that was considered to be lost for over 106 years. The Mahogany Glider was mistaken for possums and other gliders, in particular the Sugar Glider. It was rediscovered in 1989.
The Mahogany Glider is 600mm in length, from head to tail, and looks similar to a possum. It has a black stripe from its nose, along its back to the tip of its tail. The glider is a mahogany colour with a rich buff to mahogany, brown belly.
The Mahogany Glider got its name, Mahogany, from the colour of its fur, and the Mahogany Trees it lives in. It has large, brown eyes, a pointed snout and hairless ears. It also has big hands and feet, with five clawed toes on each of its hands, and only four clawed toes and one clawless thumb on each of its feet. These large hands and feet are needed to grab onto trees. It has a membrane from its wrist to its heel, which acts as a parachute to help it glide from tree to tree.
The Mahogany Glider uses its long tail as a rudder to help it change direction in flight. It can glide up to thirty to sixty metres. The Mahogany Glider is a nocturnal animal, and only comes out at night.
The Mahogany Glider is four times the weight of the Sugar Glider. The Sugar Glider is only 350mm from its head to tail tip, only half the size of the Mahogany Glider.
The Mahogany Glider moves across large areas to feed from a variety of trees and plants. The foods it likes to eat are nectar, sap, pollen and kino (a gum that leaks from trees). It also likes spiders, insects and arils from wattle seeds. Arils are the oily strings that wattle seeds hang from, and are very nutritious for the Mahogany Glider. They also eat blossoms from a variety of trees that flower throughout the year. For example, Red Mahogany trees in summer, Bloodwoods in autumn, Blue Gums in winter and Malaleucas in spring.
The female Mahogany Glider has twins and looks after them on her own. The Mahogany Glider's young are usually born between April and September.
The Mahogany Glider can live up to approximately six years. The gliders breed at night because they are nocturnal, which means they are active at night and sleep mostly during the day. The female glider can use over ten dens to sleep in and raise it's young.
Environment:
This particular glider is only found in a 110km strip between Tully and Ingham, which are situated in North Queensland.
The Mahogany Glider lives in tropical, coastal, swampy, woodlands with eucalyptus, grass and wattle trees. It nests and sleeps in tree hollows, with entrances that are small enough to stop predators entering.
Problems:
The major predators of the Mahogany Glider are the Rufous, Sooty and Masked owls. The Scrub Python is also a major predator of the Mahogany Glider. To avoid the attention of these predators, the gliders look for food on their own, rather than in pairs or groups.
The Mahogany Glider became endangered because of both human and natural causes. However, the destruction of the Mahogany Glider's habitat by humans is the major cause. Humans are clearing this land where the glider lives for farming and housing. When the trees are chopped down, the Mahogany Glider's habitat is destroyed and it can not glide across the large areas it needs to feed. The glider then needs to compete with other animals for food and shelter.
Bush fires started naturally and by humans also contribute to the destruction of the Mahogany Glider's habitat. Traps laid by humans is another reason there is a decline in Mahogany Glider numbers. The number of Mahogany Gliders has also decreased because the glider's natural predators, the Rufous, Sooty and Masked Owls and the Scrub Python, feed on them.
These human and natural causes have together caused the number of Mahogany Gliders to greatly decrease, and the species to become endangered.
Solutions:
To help save the Mahogany Glider, people firstly need to stop destroying the habitat of this endangered species, and to care for the habitat that remains. More trees which the glider likes to live in and feed from also need to be planted in the areas where the glider already lives. The Mahogany Glider needs to glide across large areas to feed, and by planting wildlife corridors (large strips of trees that are separated), the gliders are able to move from area to area.
To further care for this endangered species, burning of bush should be done seasonally, so that a variety of plants and trees can regrow.
In the Ingham district, many cane farmers have already started caring for Mahogany Glider habitat that may be on or near their farms, by doing many of the things suggested.
