Endangered
Southern greater glider
Petauroides volans
Southern greater glider is a mammal in the family Pseudocheiridae (order Diprotodontia) — Petauroides volans, recorded as Endangered and tied to Australia.
Appearance
Its ears are large and furry and it has a short snout. Its thick fur, that is white or cream underneath and "varies from dark grey, dusky brown through to light mottled grey and cream" above, makes it look bigger than it is. This species displays the famous polymorphism that greater gliders are well-known for, having a dark morph that is almost black in colour with a white underside, and a light morph that is grey and white with a white underside.
Its body spans 35–46 cm (14–18 in). Its furry tail reaches up to 60 cm (24 in) long, but is not prehensile.
Range and habitat
Prior to being split, this species was thought to be found throughout eastern Australia, but recent taxonomic revisions and splits indicate it occupies a much smaller range. Although Jackson and Groves listed the species as ranging from Bundaberg (Queensland) south to Victoria, genetic analysis by McGregor et al. Has found this species to not exist near the alleged northern edge of its range, with that species actually being P. Armillatus. It is now thought to range from Victoria north to New South Wales, but due to insufficient sampling from New South Wales, the exact border between the range of P. Volans and P. Armillatus remains unknown as of 2020.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
It is an endangered species per the IUCN Red List classification, and since 5 July 2022 has also been listed as endangered under the EPBC Act in Australia. The main threats to its survival are climate change and logging. Of the three greater glider species, this one is thought to be the most threatened and to have suffered the sharpest declines in population.
Prior to late 2019, significant logging in the forests of Victoria and New South Wales had already led to the removal of vast swathes of hollow-bearing trees that the species depended on, and caused the species to decline by almost 80% in some areas. Climate change may also threaten the species in some regions. Rising night-time temperatures may cause the cold-adapted gliders to lose their appetite, leading to starvation.
Southern greater glider is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Southern greater glider, Wikidata item Q668004. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
