On the heights of a mountain range just 30 miles west of Sydney’s Central Business District, the population of a charismatic marsupial was found to be ballooning despite recent fires.

Recorded at 45% higher than before Australia’s drought-wildfire combo of 2019, it was described as “nothing short of remarkable.”

The greater glider is an arboreal marsupial that can glide the distance of a football field using a long skin membrane that stretches between its arms and legs. With a diet composed exclusively of eucalyptus leaves, a lack of trees means a lack of gliders, and in the Blue Mountains, parts that were only lightly burned are positively full of these animals.