Carol/Edwin
I don't know much about Feathertails but suspect they are pretty common in
a lot of places - both rainforest, and box ironbark etc - though they
certainly aren't easy things to see. I spent months looking for them by
checking out flowering eucalypts very carefully with a spotlight and
binoculars and was spectacularly unsuccessful.
Rod Kavanagh from NPWS has done a fair bit of surveying for them put me
onto a much more successful technique which was the opposite of what I was
doing. He recommended walking along at a reasonable speed and moving the
spotlight around fairly quickly. We saw two feathertails that evening, both
gliding. I'd have put them down as leaves or large moths but we found both
animals on the ground and they were indeed feathertails. Admittedly this
place in the SOuth East national park (near Bombala) was a bit of a hotspot
for them. Rod reckoned that they were commonest in forest which had a lot
of 'layers' - a mix of high, medium and low trees etc.
That's about the sum total of my knowledge though Edwin I've heard of them
being reported by people spotlighting in Royal National Park (at a picnic
area somewhere - maybe on Lady Carrington?) - some message on Birding Aus
about 4 years ago mentioned the precise spot, though I didn't keep a copy.
cheers
Jon Hall
ACT regional office
ABS
02 6207 0283 - phone
02 6207 0282 - fax
Carol Probets
Sent by:
To
"Edwin Vella"
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Subject
21/09/2005 05:29 PM [mammals-aus] Feather-tail Glider
Re Edwin's query about locations for Feathertail Glider.
Recently on my land in the Capertee Valley, NSW, I was walking around in
the camping area by the dam and happened to look down and saw what at first
glance looked like a dead mouse. When I picked it up I was surprised to
find it was actually a partly-mummified Feathertail Glider. Just beautiful!
It has now been immortalised in a drawing by a wildlife artist friend of
mine.
Are they often found in box-ironbark woodland? The White Box (E. albens)
was flowering at the time. I'd just had the driveway and the grass in the
campsite slashed so it's possible it could have come from another site and
fallen off the slasher here, though the machinery would only have been used
in the local area anyway (Glen Davis area).
Interested to hear comments from those who know more about this species.
Cheers
Carol
At 8:24 PM +1000 16/9/05, Edwin Vella wrote:
Hi Jamie et al
I was once delighted to find my only Eastern Pygmy Possum feeding on
a Banksia (B. erricfolia) in June in the Royal NP (it was in the
heathy understorey of woodland and a km east of water fall station).
I was very surprised to find one within 20 metres of searching
through that habitat.
I still have not yet seen a Feathertail Glider and would be very
interested if there are any good places to try (It may just require
more hard work in finding one).
Edwin
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