Sugar
Glider
The sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps)
is a small, omnivorous, arboreal gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass. The common name refers to its preference for sugary
nectarous foods and ability to glide through the air, much like
a flying squirrel. Due to convergent
evolution, they have very similar appearance and habits to the
flying squirrel, but are not closely related. The scientific name, Petaurus breviceps,
translates from Latin as "short-headed rope-dancer", a reference to their canopy acrobatics.
Distribution and habitat
Sugar gliders can be found throughout the northern and eastern
parts of mainland Australia, and in Tasmania, Papua New Guinea and several associated isles, the Bismarck Archipelago, Louisiade Archipelago, and certain isles
of Indonesia, Halmahera
Islands of the North Moluccas. The sugar glider was introduced to
Tasmania in 1835. This is supported by the absence of
skeletal remains in subfossil bone deposits and the lack of an Aboriginal Tasmanian name for the animal. They can be found in any forest where
there is a suitable food supply, but most are commonly found in forests with
eucalyptus trees. Being nocturnal,
they sleep in their nests during the day and are active at
night. During the night they hunt insects and small vertebrates,
and feed on the sweet sap of certain species of eucalyptus, acacia and gum trees.
They are arboreal, spending most of their lives in trees. When
suitable habitats are present, sugar gliders can be seen
1 per 1,000 square metres, provided there are tree hollows available for
shelter.
This male's forehead bald spot is a scent
gland. The eyes are adapted for night vision and the ears swivel.The sugar glider has a squirrel-like body with a long, partially
(weakly) prehensile tail.
The males are larger than the females and have bald patches on their head and
chest; their length from the nose to the tip of the tail is about 24 to
30 cm (12–13 inches, the body itself is approx. 5–6 inches). A
sugar glider has a thick, soft fur coat that is usually blue-grey; some
have been known to be yellow, tan or (rarely) albino. A black stripe is seen from its nose
to midway on its back. Its belly, throat, and chest are cream in colour.
Being nocturnal, its large eyes help it to see at night, and its ears swivel to help locate prey in the
dark.It has five digits on each foot, each having a claw, except for
the opposable toe on the hind feet. Also on the hind feet, the second and third
digits are partially syndactylous (fused together), forming a grooming
comb.Its 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 the sugar glider to glide a considerable distance.There are four scent glands,
located frontal (forehead), sternal (chest), and two paracloacal (associated
with, but not part of the cloaca). These are used
for marking purposes, mainly by the male. The frontal gland is easily seen on
an adult male as a bald spot. The female has amarsupium (pouch) in the middle of her abdomen
to carry offspring.
Data averages·
Head-body length:
170 mm (160-210)mm
This form of arboreal locomotion is typically used to travel from tree
to tree; the species rarely descends to the ground. Gliding serves as an
efficient means of both locating food and evading predators.
During the cold season, drought, or rainy nights, a sugar glider's
activity is reduced. The animal may even become immobile and unresponsive due
to torpor. This differs from hibernationin
that torpor is usually a short-term daily cycle. In the winter season or
drought, there is a decrease in food supply, which is a challenge for this
marsupial because of the energy cost for the maintenance of its metabolism,locomotion, and thermoregulation.
With energetic constraints, the sugar glider will enter into daily torpor for
2–23 hours while in rest phase.However,
before entering torpor, a sugar glider will reduce activity and body
temperature normally in order to lower energy expenditure and avoid torpor.
Torpor, which is seen as an emergency measure, saves energy for
the animal by allowing its body temperature to fall to a minimum of 10.4 °C (50.7 °F)to 19.6
°C (67.3 °F). When the food is scarce, as in winter,
heat production is lowered in order to reduce energy expenditure.With low energy and heat production,
it is important for the sugar glider to peak its body mass by fat content in
the autumn (May/June) in order to survive the following cold season. In the
wild, sugar gliders enter into daily torpor more often than sugar gliders in
captivity.
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| this is my Abobo aka bobo |
Sugar gliders are seasonally adapted omnivores with a wide variety
of foods in their diet. In summer they are primarily insectivorous,
and in the winter when insects are scarce, they are mostly exudativorous (feeding on acacia gum, eucalyptus
sap, manna, honeydew or lerp). They are opportunistic feeders and can be carnivorous (preying mostly on lizards and small
birds), and eat many other foods when available, such as nectar, acacia seeds,
bird eggs, pollen, fungi and native fruits.
In captivity, they can suffer from calcium deficiencies if not fed an adequate
diet. A lack of calcium in the diet causes the body to leach calcium from the
bones, with the hind legs first to show noticeable dysfunction. Calcium tophosphorus ratios should be 2:1 to prevent hypocalcemia,
sometimes known as hind leg paralysis (HLP).Their diet should be 50% insects (gut-loaded)
or other sources of protein, 25% fruit and 25% vegetables. Some of the more recognised diets are
Bourbon's Modified Leadbeaters (BML),High Protein Wombaroo (HPW) and various calcium rich diets with
Leadbeaters Mixture (LBM).
The age
of sexual maturity in sugar gliders varies slightly between the males and
females. The males reach maturity at 4 to 12 months of age, while females
require from 8 to 12 months. In the wild, sugar gliders breed once or twice a
year depending on the climate and habitat conditions, while they can breed
multiple times a year in captivity as a result of consistent living conditions
and proper diet.
A sugar glider female gives birth to one (19%) or two (81%) babies
(joeys) per litter. The gestation period is 15 to 17 days, after which the tiny
joey (0.2 g) will crawl into a mother's pouch for further development.
They are born with a continuous arc of cartilage in their shoulder girdle to
provide support for climbing into the pouch. This structure breaks down
immediately after birth.
It is virtually unnoticeable that 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 mother can get pregnant
while her joeys are still ip (in pouch) and hold the pregnancy until the pouch
is available. The joey gradually spills out of the pouch until it falls out
completely. It emerges virtually without fur, and the eyes will remain closed
for another 12–14 days. During this time, the joey will begin to mature by
growing fur and increasing gradually in size. It takes about two months for the
offspring to be completely weaned, and at four
months, the young glider is self sufficient, however it will continue to live
in the nest for ten months.
Sugar Gliders are highly social animals. They live in family
groups or colonies consisting of up to seven adults, plus
the current season's young which leave as soon as they are able to, all sharing
a nest and defending their territory, an example of helping at the nest. They engage in social grooming,
which in addition to improving hygiene and health, helps bond the colony and
establish group identity. 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. Each colony defends a territory of
about 2.5 acres where eucalyptus trees provide a staple food source. Within the
colony, typically no fighting takes place beyond threatening behaviour.
The
sugar glider is not considered endangered, and its conservation rank is
"Least Concern (LC)" on the IUCN Red List. Despite the loss of natural habitat in
Australia over the last 200 years, it is adaptable and capable of living in
small patches of remnant bush, particularly if it does not have to cross large
expanses of cleared land to reach them. However, several close relatives are
endangered, particularly Leadbeater's Possum and the Mahogany Glider.Conservation in Australia is enacted at the federal, state and
local levels, where sugar gliders are protected as a native species. The
central conservation law in Australia is the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 is an example of conservation law in
the state of South Australia,
where it is legal to keep (only) one sugar glider without a permit, provided it
was acquired legally from a source with a permit. A permit is required to
obtain or possess more than one glider, or if one wants to sell or give away
any glider in their possession. It is illegal to capture or sell wild sugar
gliders without a permit.
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