Establishing foundations: Designing a long-term experiment to evaluate whether nestboxes assist population recovery of an endangered species after fire.

ABSTRACT: The loss of hollow-bearing trees drives population declines of hollow-dependent species. Disturbances such as wildfire can exacerbate these declines. Artificial structures, like nestboxes, are a commonly used management tool that attempt to offset hollow loss. However, the effectiveness of nestboxes as a conservation strategy is rarely tested within an experimental framework. The endangered southern greater glider (Petauroides volans) is an obligate hollow-dependent arboreal marsupial that is highly sensitive to wildfire. Southern greater glider populations experienced high mortality and habitat degradation following the 2019/2020 megafires in south-eastern Australia. We established a long-term, landscape-scale experiment to test whether purpose-built nestboxes could assist the post-fire p

SUBMITTER: Ridley JCH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12674562 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature