Sleepy Squirrel

Way up in the trees at the Mary CairnCross lives the squirrell glider. The squirrel glider is an arboreal marsupial. This means it lives in the mid-storey and canopy of the forest and rarely comes to the forest floor. Squirrel gliders nest in tree hollows found in the trunks or broken boughs of mature trees, especially eucalypts.

Gliders have a membrane of skin that stretches between front and hind legs enabling them to glide sizeable distances between trees.

A squirrel glider family consisting of one adult male, one or more adult females and many offspring, will use various hollows within their territory as nesting and refuge sites. Breeding begins in August and females can give birth to up to two live young. Living in families of up to 10, squirrel gliders alert each other when threatened. The call of a squirrel glider is a throaty ‘nar-wee’ sound.

This painting honors this magnificent creature. Created with watercolour on rice paper, using hot wax as a resist to generate the bark of the eucalyptus and imitate the canopy of the scenic reserve.

MDF framed in black , 43 X 43 cm.