Greater Glider Possums (Petauroides volans) in Coastal and Near-Coastal Eastern Australia

Scientists nowadays accord a stronger relationship between greater gliders and lemur-like ringtails (Hemibelideus lemuroides) than between the former and other gliding possums (Petauridae family) or between the latter and other ringtail possums (Pseudocheiridae family). Greater gliders in fact are evolved from ancestors that diverged from other gliding possums 36,000,000 years ago and from lemuroid ringtails 18,000,000 years later. They indeed can be confused with their closest relatives because of:

• Big, forward-facing, pale-ringed eyes reminiscent of Madagascar’s lemurs (Lemuroidea family);
• Chocolate brown or grey white corporeal upper-sides;
• Creamy white corporeal under-sides;
• Full, long tails.

Lemur-like possums copy greater gliders in aerial displays. But their glides cover 6.6 – 9.8 feet (2 – 3 meters) and do not permit 90° turns.  

Greater gliders particularly are recognizable by their furry, large ears. The ears contrast in size with the shortness of the snout and the smallness of the head. They distract attention from the food-grinder’s mouthful of:

• 6 incisors, 2 canines, 6 premolars, and 8 molars equally distributed between left and right upper jaws;
• 4 incisors, 6 premolars, and 8 molars evenly divided between left and right lower jaws.

The front of the ears exhibits a clean pinkness or whiteness when caught in the spotlights of researchers seeking the greater glider’s intense white or rare red eyeshine in order to complete marsupial population studies. Under such circumstances, startled greater gliders may break their usual silence and grunt or hiss.

Coloring assists greater glider survival in eastern coastal and near-coastal Australian habitats within:

• Eastern Victoria;
• Southeastern New South Wales;
• Southern Queensland.

Greater gliders avoid pine plantations and tropical rainforests for niches within:

• Dry and wet sclerophyll (“hard leaf”) forests;
• Forest patches surrounded by farmlands;
• Low woodlands west of the Great Dividing Range;
• Open coastal forests.

They cluster at elevations of 2,772.3 – 3,937 feet (845 – 1,200 meters) even though they adapt to lower altitudes. They congregate wherever they find eucalypt-dominated, old-growth, tall tree-friendly stands:

• From Mossman, Queensland southward to Daylesford, Victoria;
• In Mount Windsor Tableland National Park, Queensland and Wombat State Forest, Victoria.

Mature, tall eucalypts indeed dominate greater glider life cycles as venues for:

• Denning;
• Feeding;
• Mating.

Greater gliders claim as dens hollows in dead or living trees. They sometimes embellish their homes with leafy layers for floors and bark strips for floors and walls. They expect to circulate among 2 – 18+ spacious dens centrally located within home ranges of:

• 3.2 – 7.4 acres (1.3 – 3 hectares) for females;
• 3.5 – 10.1 acres (1.4 – 4.1 hectares) for males.

Monogamously-committed adults experience single- and multiple-occupancy. For example, the yearly breeding season goes from February or March to June. Mothers-to-be let their dens be homes to:

• Fathers-to-be until newborns leave maternal pouches;
• Newborns until independence at 9 months in the case of a male juvenile or until sexual maturity at 18 – 24 months in terms of a female.

Mothers-to-be annually deliver one 0.009-ounce (0.27-gram) newborn. Pre-adults emerge from:  

• 3 – 4 pouch-confined months weighing 5.3 ounces (150 grams);
• 3 back-riding months weighing 10.6 ounces (300 grams);
• 2 – 3 weaning months weighing 21.2 ounces (600 grams).

Mothers identify:

• Flattened pea-looking, 0.2 – 0.4-inch (5 – 10-millimeter) feces-eating as nutrient-recyclers;
• Patagium-blanketing as warmer-uppers;
• Saliva-grooming as cooler-downers.

Pre-adults know to avoid:

• Carpet pythons (Morelia spilota);
• Goannas (Varanus spp);
• Powerful owls (Ninox strenua);
• Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes);
• Sooty owls (Tyto tenebricosa);
• Spotted-tail quolls (Dasyurus maculatus).

They mature to:

• Coat lengths of 2.4 inches (60 millimeters);
• Head-and-body lengths of 11.8 – 18.9 inches (300 – 480 millimeters);
• Tail lengths of 17.3 – 23.6 inches (440 – 600 millimeters);
• Weights of 31.7 - 59.9 inches (900 – 1,700 grams).

Mothers assume paramount importance until newborns are weaned. Eucalyptus, fermentation, and locomotion then become key survival factors until death. Once weaned, all greater gliders in fact consume young buds, flowers and leaves of:

• Brown-top stringbark (Eucalyptus obliqua);
• Mountain gum (Eucalyptus dalrympleana);
• Mountain grey gum (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa);
• Narrow-leaved peppermint (Eucalyptus radiata);
• Ribbon gum (Eucalyptus viminalis);
• Yellow stringybark (Eucalyptus acmenoides).

Some researchers describe reluctantly desperate consumption of:

• Acacia phyllodes (blade-functioning leaf petioles);
• Mistletoe (Loranthaceae and Santalaceae families).

But generally greater gliders die rather than diverge from eucalyptus-eating. They therefore expire when there is damage to the:

• Caecum (large intestine’s entry-pouch), which ferments undigestables;
• Digits, of which the first 2 per fore-paw and 1 per rear-paw are graspingly opposable;
• Tail.

Six to 15 years appears to be the greater glider’s lifespan. Attaining the maximum or minimum depends upon:

• Globally-warming climate change;
• Wildland-urban interfaces.

Habitat-fragmenting, human-initiated agro-industrialism exerts great influence since greater glider behaviors continue as part-adaptable, part-predictable as from the first official descriptions by:

• Scottish publisher Robert Kerr (October 20, 1757 – October 11, 1813) of the species (now Petauroides volans) and nominate subspecies (now P.v. volans) in 1792;
• Norwegian zoologist Robert Collett (December 2, 1842 – January 27, 1913) of Queensland’s subspecies P.v. minor in 1887.

Dietary restrictions, minimal body fat, and terrestrial clumsiness keep dusky, fluffy greater gliders from migrating. No such limitations stop Australians committed to sustaining human and wildlife populations in the Land "Down Under.”

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Proceedings of Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1884 (May 20), Plate XXXI, between pp. 380-381: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28690273

Dark morph: "The head of a greater glider, Petauroides volans, at night.": Benjamint444, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Glider444.jpg

Distribution data from IUCN Red List: Chermundy/ IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Glider_area.png

Gloucester Tops, Barrington Tops National Park, east central coastal New South Wales: Nathan Ruser, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Encyclopedia of Life @ https://eol.org/pages/323829/media

John Gould, Mammals of Australia, Vol. I, Plate 22: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/49738135

one of two juveniles with both parents: Lodden River, Newstead, Shire of Mount Alexander, Victoria: Patrick_K59, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/63175631@N02/8460158403/https://www.flickr.com/photos/63175631@N02/8460158403/

National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC: Cliff from I now live in Arlington, VA (Outside Washington DC), USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Petauroides_volans_skeleton.jpg

Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London: C T Johansson (Christer T Johansson), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eucalyptus_dalrympleana-IMG_6019.jpg

Deua National Park, southeastern New South Wales, southeastern Australia: Poyt448 Peter Woodard, Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deau_forest2.jpg

Healesville Sanctuary, Healesville, southeastern Victoria: arndbergmann, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dasyurus_maculatus_-Healesville_Sanctuary,_Australia-8a.jpg; via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/22355135@N05/2241336392

snow in Daylesford, state of Victoria central highlands, southeastern Australia: Gervo1865 at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Daylesfordsnow.jpg

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