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Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps)

Sugar Gliders are arboreal marsupials belonging to Australia’s family of gliding (volplaning) possums. Endemic to the eastern and northern regions of the mainland, New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago, they are also found in Tasmania, after being introduced around the beginning of the nineteenth century, possibly in 1835. Other common names include the Sugar Squirrel, Lesser Flying Squirrel, Short-headed or Lesser Flying Phalanger, and Lesser Glider.

Gliding is possible for these animals due to the presence of gliding membranes or patagium, which are folds of loose flesh on each side of the body, extending from the base of the fifth toe on the fore-leg to the first toe on the hind leg. The gliders climb high into a tree, before launching themselves and extending their limbs, which stretches the patagium into an aerodynamic surface, and allows for flights of around 50 metres (reports of flight up to 100m have been claimed). This ability to glide means that Sugar Gliders can move amongst the trees in their territory without the need to descend to the ground. It is also an effective means of escape from predators.

Sugar Gliders grow to about 40cm in length, with around half of this being the animal’s tail. It is the length of this tail in relation to body size which helps them to glide and change direction by acting as a rudder and giving added stability. Adult Gliders weigh around 90g to 150g and are covered with a fine, pearl-grey fur and have a darker stripe running laterally down the spine, from the nose almost to the base of the tail. Northern populations are somewhat browner and, by following Bergman’s Rule, tend to be smaller in size.

There are seven subspecies of Petaurus breviceps

• P. breviceps ariel (Gould, 1842)
• P. breviceps breviceps (Waterhouse, 1839)
• P. breviceps biacensis (Ulmer, 1940)
• P. breviceps flavidus (Tate & Archbold, 1935)
• P. breviceps longicaudatus (Longman, 1924)
• P. breviceps papuanus (Thomas, 1888)
• P. breviceps tafa (Tate & Archbold, 1935)

Sugar Gliders are communal creatures and live in social groups numbering up to seven adults, plus the current season off-spring. Territories in areas with suitable nesting trees and adequate food can support population densities as large as one animal per 1000 square metres. The adult males mark out the boundaries of the group’s territory using saliva and scent from special glands, they also mark the individual members of the group using a set of different scent glands situated on the forehead and chest. Other gliders from different groups without this unique scent are expelled from the territory. If an adult female member of the group dies, it is replaced by one of the off-spring of that group; however, males are usually replaced by an “outsider”. The young are normally ejected from the group territory at 7 to 10 months of age.

In temperate localities, breeding starts in mid-winter (June or July). In the north, there seems to be no particular breeding season. Females show their interest in a male by rubbing against his scent gland and males rub their scent glands against the female’s chest to signal interest. The nest is made in the hollows of limbs and trunks of trees and are lined with a collection of leaves and fur. Two off-spring per female is typical; the young remain in the pouch for about 70 days, and after leaving it stay inside the nest for another 40 or 50 days. After this time, the immature gliders begin to venture from the nest to forage outside, usually under the care of the mother. Young forced from a territory may form new groups if an area is vacant, but competition for territory is fierce and not many survive the first months of independent life. A typical life-span is around nine years in the wild and twelve to fifteen years in captivity

The gliders’ diet consists of the sap of acacia and selective eucalypt species, along with arboreal invertebrates and baby birds. They tend to feed mainly on sap during the autumn and winter months and on invertebrates during the spring and summer. This characteristic of their dietary habits is thought to be because of a need for increased protein intake during the breeding and gestation (for females) period. Gliders get almost half of their water requirements from the foods they consume, with the rest being obtained presumably from rainwater and dew. During times of food scarcity gliders enter a state of torpor, in which the metabolic processes slow significantly and the body temperature drops as a means of conserving energy.

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Mammals in Australia by Ausdigi

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