Mammals
Yellow-Bellied Glider
Petaurus australis · also called yellow-bellied gliders, fluffy glider
A sudden, startling shriek cuts through the night forest as a yellow-bellied glider launches from a high branch, sailing more than 100 metres through the canopy before landing precisely at a favourite sap-feeding tree marked with its own distinctive bite notches.
Overview
The yellow-bellied glider, Petaurus australis, is a large gliding marsupial native to tall, mature forest habitat across parts of eastern Australia. Its extraordinarily long glides, distinctive bark-notching sap-feeding behaviour, and one of the loudest calls of any Australian mammal make it one of the more acoustically and behaviourally striking gliding mammals found anywhere in the country’s forests.
A glider that leaves its mark
Few animals shape their forest home as visibly as the yellow-bellied glider, whose repeated bark-notching at favoured sap trees creates lasting scars that researchers can use to track feeding activity across an entire forest over many years.
Status
Vulnerable, having declined due to the loss of mature forest habitat and major bushfire events affecting the old-growth trees it depends on for both denning and sap feeding.
Yellow-Bellied Glider: common questions
How far can a yellow-bellied glider glide?
This species can glide more than 100 metres in a single leap between trees using a furred membrane stretched between its limbs, among the longest glides recorded for any gliding mammal, a remarkable distance for an animal of its size.
Why does the yellow-bellied glider cut notches into tree bark?
This species carves distinctive V-shaped or diamond-shaped notches into the bark of certain trees, then returns repeatedly over time to feed on the sap that pools and seeps from the wound, a feeding strategy that leaves lasting, recognisable marks on favoured trees.
Why is the yellow-bellied glider's call so notable?
This species produces a loud, distinctive shrieking or gurgling call audible over considerable distances at night, one of the more startling and recognisable sounds of the Australian forest, often surprising people unfamiliar with the source.
Why has the yellow-bellied glider become Vulnerable?
This species has declined due to the loss of mature forest habitat containing suitable den trees and long-established sap-feeding sites, a decline made worse by major bushfire events that have destroyed significant areas of old-growth forest across parts of its range.