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Ecologist ‘bursts into tears’ seeing endangered gliders using replacement nests

2 0
06.06.2026

When a team of Australian researchers started checking the high-tech boxes they’d installed to help save endangered greater gliders back in 2023, they weren’t sure what they were going to find. The hope was that the tree-dwelling marsupials would use them for nesting, a replacement for the tree hollows they normally nest in, but no one knew whether or not the creatures would take to them.

So when Dr. Kita Ashman, Threatened Species and Climate Adaptation Ecologist at WWF-Australia, found a glider in the second box she checked, she was thrilled.

“I just burst into tears, I was so surprised and so happy,” she told ABC News Australia.

A creature found nowhere else on Earth

Greater gliders are nocturnal marsupials that live in old-growth forests of eastern Australia. They have large ears, fluffy fur, long tails, and they can glide up to 100 meters at a time. The species is only found in Australia.

“I grew up looking at greater gliders all throughout the Dandenong Ranges. So they have a really special place in my heart,” Dr. Ashman told........

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