Sugar Glider

Shelter for Animal | Sugar Glider | Sugar glider or Petaurus breviceps, they are marsupials and they’re endemic to Australia and New Guinea but they’ve also been introduced in Tasmania.

What is a sugar glider animal?

They’re members of the future genus in which there are seven subspecies despite their appearance and their potassium. They’re gliding flaps. They are not actually related to flying squirrels they’re just another great example of convergent evolution. They get their adorable names from their adorable diet nectar in tree sap though they will also eat anything that they can catch, mostly small invertebrates.

Body appearance

They vary in size depending on the subspecies and can measure up to 30 centimeters long and weigh up to 100 grams. The males are larger than the females the different subspecies also have different coloring but they are all counter-shaded meaning that their bellies are lighter than their backs. This makes them harder to spot by predators both above and below, namely owls, kookaburras, reptiles, and feral cats

Sugar glider habitat

Sugar gliders live in forests and occupy similar habitats to other gliding species like the fluffy glider and the mahogany glider. Fortunately, they all occupy slightly different niches and thus don’t compete for all that much. Sugar glider lives in denser canopies in trees like pink bloodwood and black wattle. Due to their small stature, they’re able to glide through these harder to maneuver denser woods easier than their larger cousins.

Mahogany gliders live in less dense canopies in areas abundant with grey blood Wood and poplar gum which offer more open flight paths for this larger less, maneuverable glider in order to glide. A sugar glider simply jumps and opens its arms like the Vitruvian Man and lets the membrane that connects the front and hind limbs to its work depending on how high they are.

Sugar glider flight

They can glide for distances of over 40 meters though these longer glides are rather uncommon and they will typically only glide for distances of about 6 meters. They will drop the bow one for every 1.8 meters that they move forward. Sugar gliders are much more maneuverable than their larger cousins and are capable of shifting direction midair to avoid an obstacle or to dodge.

A predator gliding gives them two advantages they can avoid all the predators on the ground and gliding is much more energy-efficient than climbing. So, they save a lot of energy as well when pregnant females will develop a partial septum inside their pouch which acts like a little airbag for their Joey’s protecting them from the full force of impact

When landing their feet are well adapted for their lifestyle as they have opposable thumbs on their hind feet, which are very helpful when grabbing branches their second and third fingers on their hind legs. These are partially attached to make a grooming comb their fourth fingers are longer than the rest and they use them to dig insects out of tree bark.

Sugar glider adaptations

Sugar gliders are primarily nocturnal and spend their nights looking for food and their days hidden away in trees lined with leafy twigs they have rather large eyes that are well adapted for seeing at night like other marsupials. The female sugar gliders have two uteri and two ovaries and males have a corresponding bifurcated penis. This allows for the females to give birth to two Joey’s gestation like in all marsupial.

It is very short and lasts only two weeks when the babies are born they’re incredibly underdeveloped and crawl up into their mom’s pouch finding their way only with their sense of smell. The Joey’s then stay in the pouch for around four months when they emerge. They will stay with mom and dad for about a hundred days before setting out on their own.

The male is a good parent which is a rare thing in mammals and will take turns keeping the Joey warm while the other parent goes out foraging in order to help digest. The complex carbohydrates in their diet of tree sap and gum have an enlarged cecum at the beginning of their large intestine which stores bacteria that help break the carbs down.

Behavior of flying animal

Sugar gliders are very social animals and will live in groups of up to seven adults along with their Joey’s they communicate with each other using scent glands visual cues and vocalization. When it’s particularly cold outside sugar gliders can huddle together and enter a torpor state. This is a less extreme version of hibernating and allows them to significantly lower their metabolic rate to conserve energy.

The state will last up to 23 hours during which their body temperatures will drop as low as 10 points 4 degrees Celsius they will also enter torpor if food supplies are particularly low but when it’s warm and food is plentiful. They don’t enter torpor quite as often reducing the risk of being attacked by a predator.

Glider’s population

Despite habitat destruction, sugar glider populations are surprisingly resilient though due to their adorable appearance, they have become quite popular as pets. Unfortunately, captive sugar gliders face a lot of health problems the most common of such is a calcium deficiency which causes a condition called hind leg paralysis.

Essentially due to their lack of calcium, their bodies begin to pull calcium from their bones. If you do get a sugar glider to make sure to give them a lot to do in the wild. They spend the majority of their time foraging in a small cage. They would get very bored and depressed give them lots to do.

Reference: Wikipedia