Yellow-bellied gliders use glide poles to cross the Pacific Highway at Halfway Creek, north-east New South Wales
B. D. Taylor A B and D. A. Rohweder AA Sandpiper Ecological Surveys, 1/94 Main Street, Alstonville, NSW 2477, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: btaylor3366@gmail.com
Australian Mammalogy 42(3) 385-387 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM20015
Submitted: 6 February 2020 Accepted: 5 March 2020 Published: 8 April 2020
Abstract
The installation of glide poles to enable gliding mammals to cross wide road corridors has become a common feature of highway upgrades in eastern Australia. While frequent use by small species has been well documented, records of use by large glider species are scant. During 15 months of camera monitoring of two glide poles in the median of the Pacific Highway at Halfway Creek, north-east New South Wales, yellow-bellied gliders (Petaurus australis) were detected on nine occasions. On three of these occasions, video footage captured glide launches across the northbound carriageway. Our study provides the first definitive evidence of repeated use of wooden glide poles by the yellow-bellied glider to cross a highway corridor. Glide poles, therefore, have the potential to restore functional connectivity for yellow-bellied gliders at locations where major roads bisect forest habitat.
Additional keywords: arboreal road crossing structures, road impacts.
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