Greater Glider

About the Greater Glider

The southern greater glider (Petauroides volans), also known as the southern and central greater glider, is a species of large gliding marsupial native to the forests of southeastern Australia. It is an endangered species per the IUCN Red List classification, and since 5 July 2022 has also been listed as endangered under the EPBC Act in Australia. The main threats to its survival are climate change and logging.

This was the first described species of Petauroides, and long thought to be the only species, with Petauroides armillatus and Petauroides minor being thought to comprise a distinct subspecies of it, P. volans minor; together, they were referred to as the greater glider. However, in 2012 and 2015, several field guides written by Colin Groves and/or Stephen Jackson listed the greater glider as being split into three species, confirmed by a 2020 analysis which found significant genetic and morphological differences between the three species. The American Society of Mammalogists now considers the two subspecies to be distinct from P. volans.

The Australian Government's Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) refers to the animal as the greater glider (southern... Wikipedia →