Welcome to the glider research page
In 2006, honours student Sarah McLeod investigated the nest box behaviours of squirrel gliders in northern Victoria. Nestbox colonies of free-ranging squirrel gliders (Petaurus norfolensis) were filmed using infrared video cameras to gain an understanding of some of the fundamental aspects of the biology (particularly the social behaviours and den activity patterns) of this threatened arboreal species. Video footage revealed that squirrel gliders spend 54-61% of their time in their nest, and of this time, 71-81% is spent on highly punctuated sleep.
A specific and novel type of allogrooming was discovered in which juveniles intensely groomed the muzzles of adults. This may function as a immune inoculations. Whilst numerous vocalizations were observed, of particular interest was an inhalation-whistle that was frequently made by individuals (both adult and juveniles) immediately following the departure of another colony member from the nest box. Moreover, the presence or absence of these whistles were found to correspond respectively to whether or not the colony members returned back to that nest box following their solitary feeding expeditions and thus may shed some light on the coordination of den swapping.
