The impact of the Tasmanian drought

Significantly increased numbers of sugar gliders have been injured after being forced into suburbia this drought year, as a result of fleeing from bushfires and lack of food due to the tinder dry conditions.

Weather Pattern
By the summer of 1999/2000 much of Tasmania was officially registered as drought stricken, with annual rainfall reduced by almost half. This has been attributed to the effect of the La Nina weather pattern and has had a devastating effect on our wildlife, forcing them out into the open and into suburbia in search of food.

Bushfires
Apart from the carnage of gliders caught in the path of a bushfire the immediate lack of food in the wake of such a disaster is also detrimental. Bushfires destroy forest understoreys and eucalypt canopies for a full season, forcing gliders to be exposed as they transfer territory. Also gliders have difficulty adapting to new territories.

Increased Visibility
Local farmers believed possums and wallabies for instance had reached plague proportions but National Parks and Wildlife confirm that is not the case - the animals are simply more visible as they are forced out to search for green fodder in roadside ditches and watered gardens.

Suburban Predators
The Sugar Glider grazes on spiders and insects, which need moisture to survive, so have little alternative but to follow their food source into suburbia until the rains replenish bushland stock. Consequently the drought has intensified the problem of domestic and feral cats preying on wildlife

Natural Predators
The gliders natural predator, the owl, has also followed its food source into suburbia where they are more vulnerable and easier prey

Introduced Predators
The European Wasp, which competes for the tree hollows Gliders require to sleep, breed and raise young in, thrives in these dry conditions and has multiplied.

Summary
In short it is feared that this drought has not only reduced the current population because they have fallen prey or become weak and vulnerable, but will also lead to a significant reduction in numbers in the coming year, due to reduced breeding

At least two previous studies have concluded that the combination of logging and a major bushfire in the same vicinity can decimate glider populations completely by decreasing nesting sites & food sources. Because their lives are so secretive and hidden from us it would be a silent decline.