Sugar glider
Species of Australian marsupial / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel.[8] They have very similar habits and appearance to the flying squirrel, despite not being closely related—an example of convergent evolution.[9] The scientific name, Petaurus breviceps, translates from Latin as "short-headed rope-dancer", a reference to their canopy acrobatics.[10]
Sugar glider[1] | |
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Illustration by Neville Cayley | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Diprotodontia |
Family: | Petauridae |
Genus: | Petaurus |
Species: | P. breviceps |
Binomial name | |
Petaurus breviceps Waterhouse, 1839[3] | |
Range map of the formerly recognized subspecies of sugar glider:[note 1] P. b. breviceps (introduced in Tasmania) | |
Synonyms | |
P. (Belideus) breviceps, Waterhouse 1839 |
The sugar glider is characterised by its pair of gliding membranes, known as patagia, which extend from its forelegs to its hindlegs.[11] Gliding serves as an efficient means of reaching food and evading predators.[8] The animal is covered in soft, pale grey to light brown fur which is countershaded, being lighter in colour on its underside.
The sugar glider, as strictly defined in a recent analysis, is only native to a small portion of southeastern Australia, corresponding to southern Queensland and most of New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range; the extended species group, including populations which may or may not belong to P. breviceps, occupies a larger range covering much of coastal eastern and northern Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands.[4][5] Members of Petaurus are popular exotic pets; these pet animals are also frequently referred to as "sugar gliders", but recent research indicates, at least for American pets, that they are not P. breviceps but a closely related species, ultimately originating from a single source near Sorong in West Papua.[12] This would possibly make them members of the Krefft's glider (P. notatus), but the taxonomy of Papuan Petaurus populations is still poorly resolved.[13]