Housing shortages in parts of the region’s box-ironbark forests are driving tree-dwelling creatures into man-made accommodation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Whroo Goldfields Conservation Management Network has just finished its annual study of occupancy rates in nest boxes nailed to trees from Heathcote to Nagambie.
They’ve noticed an eight per cent increase in the amount of sugar gliders and phascogales – a rare mouse-like tree dwelling marsupial – living in the nest boxes.
Network coordinator Janice Mentiplay-Smith said out of 296 next boxes in public forests and on private land, 59 per cent are now occupied.
“In some areas, we have seen an almost 100 per cent use of the nest boxes, which demonstrates the ongoing need for safe habitat for these beautiful animals,” she said.
“So rising occupancy rates really indicate the pressure in forests for critters who rely on tree hollows for shelter.”
The nest boxes were installed in 2009 and occupancy rates have risen steadily from 30 per cent in 2011, peaking this year.
The boxes are made of wood and are big enough for sugar gliders and phascogales to nest in, but not so but not so big that predators like owls can get in.
“Sugar gliders make doonas out of eucalyptus leaves. Phascogales make bedding predominantly out of stringy-bark, but they also use material like wool and twine,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
“Last year we found one who had used a snake’s skin.”
She said 42 per cent of the boxes contained sugar gliders nests, while phascogales occupied 17 per cent.
Ms Mentiplay-Smith said nest boxes were needed because many of the state’s forests were cleared in the century-and-a-half following European settlement.
While a number of forests are regrowing, many of their trees are not old enough to naturally form hollows sugar gliders and phascogales can shelter in.
“So nest boxes are a band-aid solution to that ‘time-gap’ problem,” she said.
Ms Mentiplay-Smith said there was some good news for sugar gliders and phascogales.
“There is obviously enough food around for many critters (who use the boxes),” she said.
“They eat anything that is available, including nectar, bugs, small birds and other animals. Phascogales even sometime eat sugar gliders.”
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
