Penrith City Council instals multiple wildlife habitat boxes

Penrith City Council’s conservation program has seen the installation of 34 habitat boxes across eight of Council’s reserves for wildlife to rest and nest..

These boxes were designed for a range of species, including sugar gliders, parrots, bats, possums, pardalotes and microbats.

As part of their successful conservation efforts, Council installed the boxes to combat the increased loss of habitat and old trees in the Sydney Basin Region, with reserves selected due to their native vegetation, the presence of multiple large trees, and location to housing and popular areas.

Penrith Mayor Todd Carney praised the installation of the habitat boxes, stating that it was a complementary initiative to Council’s Bushland and Biodiversity teams’ successful efforts in seeing Penrith’s bushland and wildlife continue to thrive.

Mayor Carney advised “we’re grateful to provide additional homes and nesting opportunities for our local animals at our reserves.

“It’s more important than ever that we reintroduce vegetation and replicate tree hollows to encourage our animals to nest and rest, especially when old, hollowed trees around urban areas are removed.

“Tree hollows provide animals refuge from weather and predators and are safe sites for roosting and breeding. As they take a minimum of 100 years to form, the installation of these habitat boxes allows for the instant reintroduction of habitat for our animals, such as the sugar glider, ringtail possum, caterpillars, ants, and even huntsmen spiders,” he said.

Trained professionals carefully inspected 34 habitat boxes via ladders or tree climbing and discovered that the boxes were used by sugar gliders, ringtail possums, potter wasps, huntsmen spiders, caterpillars, eucalypt leaf beetles, bush cockroaches, white cedar moths, ants, and parasitic wasps. 

“We are really excited that our local wildlife has taken to the habitat boxes and hope to see plenty more animals make use of them over the next year,” Cr Carney said.

Council’s wildlife rehabilitation experts took photographs of a few of the animals found in these habitat boxes. These photos, along with more information about the boxes, can be found at penrith.city/faunaboxes 

If you’re interested in getting involved in Council’s conservation of native fauna species like this one, contact the Bushcare team at bushcare@penrith.city and check out the available volunteer opportunities at penrith.city/bushcare

Image: Sugar glider inside one of Penrith City Council's habitat boxes. Photograph taken by Adrian O'Hara from Cumberland Plain Regeneration.