40 Fun Facts About Sugar Glider

Sugar gliders look and act remarkably like which animal, though the two are not closely related?

Flying squirrels are rodents, while sugar gliders raise their young in a pouch like kangaroos. The two developed near-identical gliding bodies independently.

Like kangaroos and koalas, sugar gliders belong to which group of mammals?

Marsupials give birth to tiny, undeveloped young that finish growing in a pouch. A sugar glider mother's pouch sits in the middle of her belly.

Sugar gliders are named for their taste for sweet tree sap and which other sugary liquid?

Nectar and sap are the sugary staples behind the first half of the name. The second half describes how the animal sails between trees on outstretched skin.

Launching from a high branch, about how far can a sugar glider travel in a single glide?

50 metres or more is possible because the stretched membrane works as an aerofoil. The animal drops only about 1 metre for every 1.82 metres it travels forward.

A baby sugar glider is known by which name?

Joey is the name for the young of every pouched mammal. A newborn sugar glider weighs just 0.2 grams when it crawls into its mother's pouch.

At 85 to 141 grams, a full-grown sugar glider weighs about as much as which ball?

A baseball is a fair match for the 3 to 5 ounces an adult weighs. The animal looks bigger than that because its tail is nearly as long as its 6-inch body.

Unusually for a mammal, which sugar glider relative stays with the babies to keep them warm?

The father takes a turn curling around the young while the mother is out feeding. Babies need the help because they cannot control their own body temperature until about 100 days old.

Behaviour tests show sugar gliders can see which kind of light that human eyes cannot?

Ultraviolet joins green and red in the sugar glider's three-colour vision. Genetic analysis in the same study backed up what the behaviour tests showed.

A sugar glider's alarm call is often compared to the sound of which animal?

A small dog barking is the usual comparison for the alarm call. Sugar gliders also hiss, buzz, drone and make a soft purr when they are content.

The bald spot on top of an adult male sugar glider's head is actually what?

A scent gland sits there, and the male rubs it on his family so the whole group carries one shared odour. Strangers without that odour are chased away.

When do wild sugar gliders, with their big dark eyes, come out of the nest to feed?

At night is when they leap, glide and grab their way to food, having snoozed in a shared nest until dusk. Their large eyes are built for seeing in low light.

Where do wild sugar gliders build the nests that a whole family group shares?

Tree hollows matter so much that loggers are advised to keep three to five hollow-bearing trees on every hectare so sugar gliders can stay.

Which birds are the main natural predators of wild sugar gliders in Australian forests?

Owls of the genus Ninox top the list, ahead of kookaburras, snakes and quolls. Gliding from trunk to trunk keeps a sugar glider away from hunters on the ground.

What do sugar gliders sharing a nest do in cold weather to avoid losing body heat?

They huddle together in the nest, pooling their warmth. It saves less energy than letting their body temperature fall for a few hours, which they also do.

Sugar gliders gnaw holes in the bark of which iconic Australian trees to drink the sap?

Eucalyptus sap is such a staple that each family group defends its own set of the trees against outsiders. Acacia gum is another favourite.

During spring and summer, wild sugar gliders switch from tree gums to eating mainly what?

Insects, mainly moths and beetles, fill most of the warm-season menu. Rather than chase them, a sugar glider often waits for one to fly within reach.

The clawless toe on each sugar glider hind foot grips branches like which part of a human hand?

Thumb is the right comparison, because the toe bends far enough to touch all the other digits. That grip lets a sugar glider hold a branch firmly.

Two fused toes on each hind foot give a sugar glider a built-in tool for which job?

Combing its fur is the job of the fused second and third toes, which end in two separate nails. Group members also groom one another, which bonds the family.

Which body parts can a sugar glider swivel independently to help it locate prey?

Its ears move independently of each other and are highly sensitive to sound. The wide-set eyes do a different job, helping it judge where to land.

How do sugar gliders cool themselves when the air temperature climbs towards 40 degrees Celsius?

Licking their coats and exposing the wet patch lets evaporation carry heat away. They also drink small amounts of water to cope with the heat.

About four in five sugar glider litters consist of which of these?

Twins arrive in about 81 percent of litters, and the rest are single babies. Carrying only a few, relatively heavy young means a pregnant female can still glide.

Newborn sugar gliders arrive blind and furless with only which sense already working?

Smell is all a newborn needs, because it follows its mother's odour from the birth canal up into the pouch. It then stays hidden inside for about two months.

Which short, daily energy-saving state do sugar gliders enter when cold weather makes food scarce?

Torpor lets a sugar glider's body temperature fall as low as about 10 degrees Celsius for a few hours. Unlike hibernation, it usually runs on a short daily cycle.

What is the name for the gliding membrane that runs from a sugar glider's wrists to its ankles?

Patagium is the term, and the sugar glider steers by changing the tension in each one. To turn left, it lowers its left forearm below the right.

Sugar gliders and the unrelated animals they resemble are a classic case of which natural process?

Convergent evolution is when unrelated species arrive at similar bodies and habits separately. Here a pouched mammal and a placental one both ended up as furry gliders.

In the sugar glider's scientific name, Petaurus breviceps, the Latin word breviceps means what?

Short-headed is how breviceps translates. The genus name Petaurus has been rendered as both rope-dancer and springboard, a nod to the animal's treetop acrobatics.

DNA tests traced the pet sugar gliders sold in the United States back to which country?

Indonesia, specifically its West Papua region, was the source. The study found no sign that the American pets came from animals taken illegally in Australia.

Scientists believe the sugar glider's genus, Petaurus, first evolved on which large island?

New Guinea is the likely cradle of the genus. Its gliders are thought to have reached Australia later, when lower seas exposed land bridges between the two.

The true sugar glider lives in coastal southern Queensland and the eastern edge of which part of Australia?

New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range completes the range. Gliders across the rest of the east are now treated as a separate species, Krefft's glider.

Pet sugar gliders on a poor diet can lose the use of their hind legs for lack of which mineral?

Calcium runs short on fruit-heavy diets, so the body takes it from the bones instead. The hind legs are the first part of a sugar glider to show the damage.

Which natural disaster of 2019 and 2020 struck much of the sugar glider's small native range?

Bushfires swept the coastal forests just months before a study revealed how small the species' true range is. With so little ground to its name, the animal is now thought far more sensitive to threats than once believed.

Which side effect of growing towns may make it harder for sugar gliders to feed and avoid predators?

Light pollution may reduce their ability to forage and dodge hunters. It is a worry even though the species copes well with small patches of remaining bush.

In Tasmania, introduced gliders long called sugar gliders eat the chicks of which endangered bird?

Swift parrot nestlings are taken by gliders thought to descend from pets brought to Tasmania in the 1830s. The bird breeds nowhere else, so the raids threaten its survival.

What marking runs back from a sugar glider's nose, over its head and along its back?

A black stripe down the middle stands out against the blue-grey coat, while the belly, throat and chest are cream.

Which large Australian lizards are among the natural predators of sugar gliders?

Goannas appear on the list alongside kookaburras, snakes and quolls. Gliding lets a sugar glider escape tree-climbing hunters in three dimensions.

Sugar gliders eat sugary crusts of dried tree sap that are known by which name?

Manna is the crusty sugar left where sap has oozed from a wound in a trunk or branch and dried. Sugar gliders also lap up honeydew, a sweet liquid made by bugs.

Sugar gliders eat so much pollen that they are thought to pollinate which Australian shrubs?

Banksias are likely to be pollinated by them because pollen can form a large part of the diet. Most people picture bees and birds doing that job, not a gliding mammal.

Sugar gliders have an enlarged version of which gut pouch for digesting tree gum?

Caecum bacteria ferment the complex carbohydrates in gum that a sugar glider could not otherwise break down. The rest of its gut is more like a meat-eater's.

What do sugar gliders do just before a leap to judge the distance to their landing spot?

They bob their heads to triangulate the distance, helped by a wide field of vision. Once airborne they steer by tilting their arms and adjusting the tension in the membrane.

What does a sugar glider carry curled in its tail on the way back to the nest?

Leaves for the nest are held in the semi-prehensile tail as the animal scampers home. The tail is not strong enough to support the sugar glider's own weight.