Drawing Australian Gliders launched by ABC TV's Costa Georgiadis

With his ecologist wife Dr Judy Smith and artist daughter Kate Smith, the trio has launched their new children's book Drawing Australian Gliders, which brings together art and natural history.

The launch of the book at Taronga Zoo by ABC TV's Costa Georgiadis last month coincides with the change in the national conservation status of the Greater Glider, from vulnerable to endangered.

The book's author, Kate Smith, is a visual artist who grew up in the Blue Mountains and now lives in Canberra. Her ecologist parents contributed accounts of the life histories of the gliders. The couple has lived, worked and watched gliders in the Blue Mountains for more than 40 years.

The children's book follows on from the Smiths 2019 book, Native Fauna of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area - a comprehensive account of the native vertebrate fauna of the Greater Blue Mountains.

Attendees at the launch were treated to a close view of several gliders in Taronga's Woodlands immersive classroom.

"It does give me hope that the next generation will be more interested than our generation was," Dr Smith said of the audience reaction to seeing and hearing about gliders.

ABC TV's Costa Georgiadis told the audience at the launch "this book is a verb". Adding it was about actions - "creating action... how do we create engagement by turning things into actions".

The gliders roam in Blue Mountains forests only at night, by day they den in hollows, and so often go unnoticed, the trio said.

The book shows how to look closely at gliders with an artist's eye, and create your own artworks. Information, photos and drawings of three Blue Mountains gliders: the tiny Feathertail Glider, the Sugar Glider and the biggest Australian glider, the threatened Greater Glider, are included.

The book was initiated by the Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala Conservation Partnership, one of the regional partners of the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, a major conservation project working to protect and restore healthy landscapes across 3,600 km of eastern Australia. The book was funded by the NSW Government's Saving our Species program and the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife.

Proceeds will be used to fund further conservation efforts in the Great Eastern Ranges.

The trio hope both books encourage a deeper understanding of Australian fauna and a will to conserve it.