Sugar Glider

A Sugar Glider is a small gliding marsupial native to eastern and northern mainland Australia, New Guinea, and the Bismarck Archipelago, and introduced to Tasmania, Australia. Sugar gliders can be found all throughout Northern and Eastern Australia, along with the surrounding islands of Tasmania, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. They can be found in any forest where there is food supply but are commonly found in forests with eucalyptus trees. They are nocturnal, sleeping in their nests during the day and active at night.At night is when they hunt for insects and small vertebrates and feed on the sweet sap of certain species of eucalyptus, acacia and gum trees. The Sugar Glider is named for its preference for sweet foods and its ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel.

They live in groups of up to seven adults, plus the current season's young, all sharing a nest and defending their territory, an example of helping at the nest. A dominant adult male will mark his territory and members of the group with saliva and a scent produced by separate glands on the forehead and chest. Intruders who lack the appropriate scent marking are expelled violently.

A sugar glider has a squirrel-like body with a long non-prehensile tail. The males are larger than the females and their length from nose to tip of tail is about 9.5 to 12 inches long. They have a thick, soft fur coat that is usually a blue-grey; some have been known to be yellow, tan, or albino. A black stripe is seen from their nose to midway of their back. Their belly, throat, and chest are a cream color.

They have five digits on each foot, each having a claw, except for the opposable toe on the hindfeet. Also on the hindfeet the second and third digits are partially syndactylous (fused) together to form a grooming comb.Their most striking feature is the patagium, or membrane, that extends from the fifth finger to the first toe. When legs are stretched out this membrane allows them to glide distances 50–150 meters. Their gliding is regulated by changing the curvature of the membrane or moving the legs and tail.

Another feature are the scent glands, located on the frontal (forehead), sternal (chest), and paracloacal (cloaca). These are used for marking purposes mainly for the males. The frontal is easily seen on adult males as a bald spot. The male also has a bifurcated (two shafts) penis. The female has a marsupium (pouch) in the middle of her abdomen to carry offspring.

In the wild, gliders live off gum and sap (typically from the eucalyptus), acacia trees, nectar and pollen, manna and honeydew and a wide variety of insects and arachnids. A captive glider's diet is protein ( mealworms and crickets, eggs, lean meat and commercial protein sources such as insectivore diets, monkey chow) and rest is made up of fruits, vegetables, sap, and nectar with additional calcium through things like yogurt and supplements.

The age of sexual maturity in sugar gliders varies slightly between the males and females. The males reach maturity between 12–15 months old while females reach maturity between 8–12 months. In the wild, sugar gliders breed once to twice a year depending on the climate and habitat conditions while they can breed up to 3 times a year in captivity as a result of consistent living conditions.

A sugar glider female has one (19%) to two (81%) joeys a litter. The gestation period is 15 to 17 days, after which the baby sugar glider (0.2g) will crawl into a mother’s pouch for further development. It is virtually unnoticeable the female is pregnant until after the joey has climbed into her pouch and begins to grow, forming bumps in her pouch. Once in the pouch, the joey will attach itself to its mother’s nipple where it will stay for about 60 to 70 days. The joey gradually spills out of the pouch until it falls out completely. The mother can get pregnant 12 days after the young have left her pouch. Their eyes will remain closed for another 12–14 days and they are virtually furless at first. During this time they will begin to mature by starting to grow fur and increasing gradually in size. It is about two months for the offspring to be completely weaned off of the mother, and at four months they are on their own.