Albury Wodonga Threatened Species Monitoring Program

Albury Conservation Company's ecologist Dylan McWhinney installing a motion-sensing camera to monitor Squirrel Gliders in Thurgoona, NSW (2020) — Albury Conservation Company’s ecologist Dylan McWhinney installing a motion-sensing camera to monitor Squirrel Gliders in Thurgoona, NSW (2020)

Monitoring Squirrel Glider population health

One of the main activities of Albury Conservation Company has been the Threatened Species Monitoring Program. Each year, this long-running program monitors the population of Squirrel Gliders in key areas around Albury and Wodonga. This valuable data provides insights into the health of the Squirrel Glider population allowing regulators and the community to identify impacts from threats such as urban development.

The Albury component of the program is generously sponsored by Albury City Council. Currently, there is no external funding for the Wodonga component. Albury Conservation Company is able to fund the 2026 monitoring in Victoria thanks to a generous donation. If you’d like to help us continue this program in the future, please consider making a donation here.

Background to the project

In June 2018, Albury Conservation Company started the threatened species monitoring program across Thurgoona/Wirlinga, the major urban growth area of Albury. The main focus of the program has been the Squirrel Glider (Petaurus norfolcensis).
The program is based on a monitoring plan funded by Albury Conservation Company (with NSW Department of Industry – Lands), and produced by the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology in December 2016. In early 2017 the plan was addended following a peer review conducted by Dr Damian Michael, then a Director of Albury Conservation Company and Senior Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University. Potential monitoring sites were identified and mapped by Liam Grimmett (LG Spatial).
Albury Conservation Company initially funded the entire program, including advertising for and recruiting a wildlife ecologist (Dylan McWhinney, DM Ecological) in April 2018.
In winter 2020, the monitoring program expanded into Wodonga. 48 sites were monitored in the first round and Squirrel Gliders were detected at 26% of the total sites.

Over 60 sites across Wodonga have been selected for the moniotoring program.

Program Objectives

The program provides data on threatened species. Squirrel Gliders are a threatened species in NSW, listed as ‘vulnerable’. The species is listed as Endangered in Victoria.
Thurgoona / Wirlinga contains a regionally significant population of Squirrel Gliders, however they face an uncertain future in Albury’s growth area. If we are not careful, they are at risk of becoming locally extinct.
Until we began the program, the surveying of gliders had been site-specific (e.g. a requirement of an individual development application), or opportunistic (e.g. nestbox checks). Hence we did not know whether the local glider population was increasing, stable or in decline.
Our monitoring program aims to provide scientific evidence of the health of our local Squirrel Glider population, and to raise the alarm if a serious threat is detected at specific sites, allowing responsible stakeholders the opportunity to act. Before it is too late!

Monitoring approach

Permits are obtained to undertake the research, including Animal Ethics approval, from Charles Sturt University and a wildlife research permit from NSW Government. Site access is negotiated with a variety of land owners, including the Albury Environmental Land network.
The main tool being used to monitor for Squirrel Gliders are motion-sensing cameras. Albury Conservation Company uses 70 cameras in the program, purchased thanks to two grants from Wettenhall Environment Trust and public donations to our 2018 Edge Pledge campaign.
Our ecologist Dylan McWhinney is deploying the cameras at the following rates: 60+ sites per survey effort in both Albury and Wodonga, two survey efforts annually (autumn and spring), each camera is deployed for 10 days per site.
The cameras are placed at a variety of sites around Thurgoona / Wirlinga (Albury) and Leneva /Baranduda (Wodonga) including: urban, peri-urban (approved development / proposed development), rural, riparian, remnant woodland, roadside reserves and revegetation.

A Squirrel Glider detected during our autumn 2019 round of monitoring.

What are the results of the program so far?

Our latest Annual Report for 2025-26 can be viewed here.
This updated report format draws upon 8 years of strategic monitoring of Squirrel Gliders by our ecologist Dylan McWhinney throughout Albury and Wodonga.