![]() ![]() “Together, the molecular and historical data show that sugar gliders have only been in Tasmania approximately 150 years, not the many thousands of years we would expect if they were a native species. They also used DNA sequencing to compare Tasmanian sugar gliders with populations from southern Australian. ![]() The researchers used historical records, including specimens in Australia’s natural history collections, community sightings recorded on the Atlas of Living Australia, and early European expedition logs. Specimens from Australia’s natural history collections, including the Australian National Wildlife Collection in Canberra, have shown that sugar gliders are not native to Tasmania. To answer this questions, a team of researchers set out to answer the question of whether sugar gliders were introduced recently to Tasmania or if they’ve been there all along. “We began to wonder, are sugar gliders supposed to be in Tasmania? Are they a native species there?” she says. But it’s considered unusual for birds to make up a large portion of their diet,” Dr Holleley says. “Sugar gliders are omnivores, feeding on eucalyptus gum, sap, insects, nectar, honeydew, lizards and also birds. During their summer migration to Tasmania, they face sugar gliders eating not only their eggs and nestlings, but also the adult parrots. On the mainland, swift parrots face a set of threats common to many native species, including habitat loss. One of the tricky parts about conserving swift parrots is that they don’t go to the same place every time, because individual blue gums don’t flower every year. They fly in from mainland Australia to breed in Tasmania during the warmer months, feeding on the nectar of Tasmania’s blue gums. Swift parrots are a migratory species related to lorikeets. “In 2014, conservation biologist Dejan Stojanovic discovered, to everyone’s surprise, that sugar gliders are preying on swift parrots in Tasmania,” says Dr Clare Holleley of our Australian National Wildlife Collection. When one beloved native animal threatens another it creates a dilemma for conservationists. You’ve just witnessed the loss of a nest of the critically endangered swift parrot. In this idyllic setting a horrifying scene plays out by night: a sugar glider disappears into a tree hollow, a puff of feathers appears. The flowering blue gums of Tasmania shelter two beloved Australian species: the sugar glider, a marsupial renowned for gliding between trees on outstretched limbs, and the swift parrot, a migratory bird that nests in Tasmania over summer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |