Ecologists launch plastic nest box innovation to bridge tree hollow shortage for gliding possums – ABC News
For decades nesting boxes have provided sanctuary for threatened Australian wildlife. Now two regional New South Wales ecologists are behind the manufacture of a new plastic design they believe could be the next evolution in bolstering at-risk wildlife.
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When Carl Tippler and Mick Callan started designing a new type of nest box for native animal use, they received an inspirational tip from a university professor.
“His advice was, ‘There’s been a lot of attempts to retrofitting things to traditional plywood nest boxes. Start again’,” Mr Tippler said.
After three years and 20 iterations of the prototype, their company has launched a cylindrical, modular nest box design called the Habitec.
Manufactured in Orange in central-western New South Wales, the design is influenced by scientific studies of natural tree hollows and the animals that use them.
Made from durable, UV-stabilised plastic and plywood inserts, the scientists claim it has several advantages and will outlast timber versions by several decades.
“We can maintain temperatures up to 7 degrees Celsius cooler on the hottest day, and up to 5C warmer on the coldest nights,” Mr Tippler said.
“This is really critical for a lot of species that have very specific temperature and humidity requirements.”
Mick Callan said 15 per cent of Australian invertebrate animals depend on tree hollows, but they are steadily disappearing as a result of land clearing.
“Typically, it’s the largest oldest trees in the landscape that go first and they’re the ones that do have the tree hollows,” he said.
“So once you start losing those you’re losing that critical resource.”
Improving gliding possum habitat
Several of the boxes are being installed in trees at a sheep farm in Fullerton in the New South Wales Southern Tablelands.
The property is part of the K2W Glideways conservation project that is linking up 319,000 hectares of trees across a massive stretch of the state.
Project manager Mary Bonet said the project was trying to address a decline of gliders throughout Australia.
“A lot of our gliding possums are really struggling … particularly the squirrel glider and the greater glider,” Ms Bonet said.
“This is caused by habitat loss and habitat fragmentation.”
With help from volunteers, 3,000 trees and shrubs were planted among a row of older trees.
Improving the property’s sustainability will allow her to trade biodiversity offset credits in the future.
“The older stands of trees provide essential habitat for some of our key and iconic wildlife. That’s going to contribute to the biodiversity on my farm,” Ms Alders said.
“It’s going to help agencies to be able to document that I’m caring for my land, that I’m being a good custodian and that’s going to be important going forward.”
Ms Alders said she was eager to see if gliders will take up residence.
“They’re there as a key indicator and it lets you know that all the little animals and plants below them are doing well if that population is healthy.”
Timber nest boxes still effective
For more than 20 years, associate professor Ross Goldingay at Southern Cross University has studied the ecology of threatened species.
“I wouldn’t write them off just yet, they still have a role to play,” Professor Goldingay said.
He said their uptake highly depended on where they were placed in the landscape.
“If you target the nest boxes to areas where there’s a paucity, where the hollows are needed, you get very good rates of use,” he said.
“We’ve commonly had maybe 30 per cent or more of our target species using our nest boxes that we’ve installed.”
Mr Goldingay said land clearing law reform and widespread education were needed to stem the loss of hollow-bearing trees and threatened species.
“Trees take on average about 100 years to produce hollows so when you lose them they’re not going to come back in our lifetime,” he said.
“So you need to manage it very carefully.”
Watch this story on ABC TV’s Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday, or on iview.