The Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) is a small gliding possum native to eastern and northern mainland Australia, New Guinea, and the Bismarck Archipelago, and introduced to Tasmania.
It is around 16 to 20 cm (6.3 to 7.5 in) in length, with a slightly longer tail, and weighs between 90 and 150 grams (3 to 5.3 oz). The fur is generally pearl grey, with black and cream patches at the base of the pink ears. The tail tapers only moderately and the last quarter of it is black, often with a white tip. The muzzle is short and rounded. Northern forms tend to be brown coloured rather than grey and, as predicted by Bergmanns Rule, smaller.
The most noticeable features of its anatomy, however, are the twin skin membranes called "patagium"s which extend from the fifth finger of the forelimb back to the first toe of the hind foot. These are inconspicuous when the Sugar Glider is at rest — it merely looks a little flabby, as though it had lost a lot of weight recently — but immediately obvious when it takes flight. The membranes are used to glide between trees: when fully extended they form an aerodynamic surface the size of a large handkerchief.
Sugar Gliders can occupy any area where there are tree hollows for shelter and sufficient food. Their diet varies considerably with both geography and the changing seasons, but the main items are the sap of acacias and certain eucalupts, nectar, pollen, and arthropods. They are difficult to see in the wild, being small, wary, and nocturnal, but a sure sign of their presence is the stripping of bark and tooth marks left in the soft, green shoots of acacia trees.
The gliding membranes are primarily used as an efficient way to get to food resources. They may also, as a secondary function, help the Sugar Glider escape predators like goannas, introduced foxes and cats, and the marsupial carnivores that foxes, cats, and Dingos largely supplanted. The ability to glide from tree to tree is clearly of little value with regard to the Sugar Gliders avian predators, however, in particular owls and kookaburras.
Sugar Glider.
Although their aerial adaptation looks rather clumsy and primitive by comparison with the highly specialised limbs of birds and bats, Sugar Gliders can volplane for a surprisingly long distance — flights have been measured at over 50 meters (55 yd) — and steer effectively by curving one or other of the gliding membranes (patagium). They use their hind legs to thrust powerfully away from a tree, and when about 3 meters (3 yd) from the destination tree trunk, bring their hind legs up close to the body and swoop upwards to make contact with all four limbs together.
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