Creatures of Mt. Glorious
Angle-Headed Dragon
Mount Glorious has some unique creatures like the Southern Angle-Headed Dragon (Hypsilurus spinipes) pictured above!
The southern angle-headed dragon is a rainforest dweller and is grey-brown or chocolate-brown on top, often suffused with green and grows up to 40cm long. The Southern Angle-Headed Dragon has a high crest of spines on the top of its neck; while the sides of the head meet to form an acute angle, hence the name. The dragon's limbs are long and slender with a series of enlarged, spiny scales on the upper surfaces.
Its habitat is subtropical rainforest of the D'Aguilar Range, especially Mt Glorious. Two, or possibly three, species occur in Australia where they are confined to the rainforests and adjacent forest communities of the east coast. It is thought that they represent a recent migrant from the island of New Guinea.
The rainforest of the D'Aguilar Range National Parks is home for many unusual animals. The Tiger Quoll Dasyurops Maculatus is found here. It is a member of the Dasyuridae family. These animals serve a very important part in the ecology of the rainforest, keeping small animal numbers in check.
Unfortunately the dumping of cats and the destruction of the quolls habitat helped caused the decline of these beautiful creatures.
A couple of other 'local' characters are the Red-legged Pademelon Thylogale stigmatica and the Red-necked Pademelon Thylogale thetis very small forest-dwelling marsupials that often bound across the road unexpectedly, or can be discovered when wandering through the forest areas. They are very shy and believed to be under threat from feral cats dingos and foxes. Pademelons are very cute animals that are often found traveling in twos or with the last season's young. According to long term locals, the numbers have definitely declined over the past 20 years.
There are also two types of bandicoot found here, the short-nosed bandicoot Isoodon macrourus and the long-nosed bandicoot Perameles nasuta. They dig up the ground looking for insect larvae and if you look in the picnic areas early in the morning you will often see small mounds where they have been digging.
One unusual amphibian found at Maiala is the Mt Glorious Torrent frog Tandactylus diumis. It was first found here and this is one of the few localities where it can be found. It lives near the raging torrents and will jump into the water at the slightest sound.
Mount Glorious
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