Pure Sugar

The Sugar Glider is a small possum that has the ability to glide (just like his name says), he is native to Australia, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago and furthermore it was also introduced to Tasmania. Along side the fact that he looks cute and cuddly in the pictures of his in the wild, there are some places where it is legal to keep one as a pet.

The Sugar Glider is about 16 to 21 centimeters long and with a tail that is almost as long as the body. The fur is pearl grey, it usually has black and cream patches on its belly and black or grey ears; there are albinos but these are rare. The tail slopes moderately away from the sugar glider and is usually tipped in black. The sugar gliders that are found in the North are usually smaller and they are a more brown color rather then the pearl grey.

The most amazing thing about this beautiful creature is the two skin membranes that extend from the fifth finger on the front leg all the way to the first toe of the back foot...you really can't see anything when the Sugar Glider is resting but when he does take flight everything becomes very obvious, when the membranes are extended they form an aerodynamic surface that is about the size of a handkerchief, it is really something to see!

This ability to glide is used to get from one tree to another mainly because there is some type of food on the other tree that the sugar glider wants to get to; the sugar glider also uses its ability as a form of escape from the many predators it has.
The Sugar Glider has nothing of the grace and beauty that birds have during flight but it does get around and his purpose has been served well...he can actually glide for quite a long distance, there was one flight that was measured at over 55 yards, now that is something! To steer during flight, they just curve one pataguim or the other and when it is coming in for a landing he brings his hind legs up close to his body and glides upwards to land on the tree with all four legs.

When the Sugar Glider is living in its natural habitat, he lives in the trees in groups of 15 to 30 members; it is most active by night, that is when it hunts for insects and invertebrates, it also eats the sweet sap of different kinds of eucalyptus, acacia and gum trees; that is where he got his name from by the way, eating sweet stuff and gliding through the air.

The Sugar Glider will take over any place that has shelter and enough food to sustain it, its diet can vary from season to season and available food sources, but the main things are sap of the acacias and Eucalyptus, along with nectar pollen and arthropods. These are hard creatures to get a glimpse of in the wild because they are nocturnal and very shy, but evidence of its passing is easy to find, there can be places where the bark has been stripped off the tree and tooth marks left on the soft green baby acacia trees.

The males of the group mark their territory with saliva and scent from different glands that can be found on the chest and on the forehead...they also mark group members with this scent and many times if a visitor shows up without the right scent, then he will be kicked out of the group in a …not so nice manner.

The Sugar Glider is not an endangered species, they are doing quite well despite habitat loss, and they are even capable of living in small patches of bushes. In Australia they are illegal to own except with a license witch is usually only given out for research.

In the places where it is legal to keep Sugar gliders, it is not difficult to keep and raise them, they can be found for sale as pets in America and they are popular enough because of their active and curious nature, if you give it plenty of attention it will form a strong bond with its human owners.