Conservation groups have accused a New South Wales agency of logging one of the last known remaining strongholds of the greater glider, an endangered marsupial species, and urged the state government to intervene.

Dr Kita Ashman, an ecologist with the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia, said researchers had recorded 96 greater gliders in the Tallaganda state forest south of Canberra over two nights of searching with spotlights last year.

“It’s the only place I’ve ever seen where greater gliders were the dominant species,” Ashman said. “I’ve never seen anything like the density [of the population]. In most other places where greater gliders were once abundant they are disappearing. To know this habitat is being logged is extremely upsetting.”

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The greater glider is Australia’s largest gliding marsupial. It was listed as endangered in 2022 after losing significant parts of its habitat to bushfire, drought, land-clearing and logging.

It was particularly badly affected by the 2019-20 bushfires, which damaged its habitat in Gippsland and NSW. Scientists say its population has fallen by about 80% in 20 years in some areas.

Forestry Corporation said the forestry operation in the Tallaganda state forest had been carefully planned under the rules that govern it. It said that included “intensive pre-harvest surveys” to identify and map “sensitive habitat and ecological features and retain wildlife habitat”, including connections into surrounding forest and parks.