Habitat preferences of squirrel gliders, Petaurus norfolcensis, in the fragmented landscape of southeast Queensland Coral Rowston * , Carla P. Catterall, Cameron Hurst Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Grif®th University, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia Abstract Twenty seven sites, located in a range of sizes of bushland remnants (10 to >2000 ha) and spanning a range of altitudes (0± 500 m), were surveyed for squirrel gliders. All sites were open forest or woodland with an overstorey of eucalyptus, although the ¯oristic composition and physical structure of the habitat varied. The gliders were present in remnants as small as 10±20 ha, had higher densities in remnants between 200 and 1000 ha and were restricted to altitudes below 240 m. Squirrel gliders occurred mainly in areas containing plant species typical of drier eucalyptus open forest and woodland, and were less frequently located in vegetation containing eucalyptus and other plants typical of higher rainfall areas, near rainforest or along creeks and drainlines. Where gliders did occur, there was a signi®cant positive correlation between glider abundance and the density of stags (standing dead trees) and trees (>1 m, >10 cm diameter at breast height (dbh)). Squirrel gliders in southeast Queensland appear to be quite tolerant of the current level of fragmentation of their habitat, but their persistence in the longer term will depend on retaining adequate cover of lowland eucalyptus forest and woodland, particularly the spotted gumÐironbark and related vegetation types. Further decrease in forest cover may reduce habitat linkages and result in the extirpation of this species from small remnants in which they currently occur. Keywords: Forest fragmentation; Eucalyptus forest; Petaurus norfolcensis; Habitat preferences; Remnant size; Altitude 1. Introduction Habitat fragmentation has three major components, loss of original habitat, reduction in remnant size, and increasing isolation of remnants (Andre Ân, 1994). The response of mammals to the loss and fragmentation of habitat will, in theory, be determined by the extent of their dependence on a forest environment (McIlroy, 1978), and the compatibility of the life history of the species with the degree of habitat fragmentation (Laurance, 1991; Lindenmayer and Nix, 1993; Fimbel, 1994; Collinge, 1996). For forest-dependent species, the decrease in the area of original habitat may result in a decrease in population size and an increased risk of extinction (Andre Ân, 1994). Small areas may also show reduced species densities because of alterations in habitat due toedgeeffects(Andre Ân,1994;Murcia,1995;Beerand Fox, 1997), or because they contain different habitat from larger remnants as a result of selective clearing of the landscape (Usher, 1987). * Corresponding author. Present address: 478 Willaura Dve, Mt Hallen, Qld 4311, Australia. Tel.: 61-7-5426-4007; fax: 61-7-5426-4009. E-mail address: bushland@uq.net.au (C. Rowston).