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Today on Animal Fact Files, we're discussing sugar gliders. Be sure to glide your cursor over the sub button! Thank you to farixuan mdnoor and Chava Feldman Official for today's request! The common name sugar glider is usually used in reference to a single species, however, there are five other similar gliding marsupial species, so we’re just going to discuss the entire genus of sugar gliders today. Also, sugar gliders and flying squirrels, while similar, are not the same animals. Sugar gliders and flying squirrels are an excellent example of convergent evolution in nature where two completely separate species develop similar traits. There are many more types of gliding mammals, too!

Sugar gliders are native to Australia, New Guinea, and the surrounding islands. They typically live in forest habitats and seem to have a strong preference for eucalyptus trees. This is likely dual purposed. As their name implies, sugar gliders love to eat sugary nectar. They may also consume invertebrates, tree sap, and pollen, a practice which makes sugar gliders great pollinators in their home ranges. The other reason sugar gliders may seek out eucalyptus trees has to do with their nesting habits - though I wouldn’t blame them if it had something to do with that aromatic eucalyptus smell.

Sugar gliders nest in live trees, eucalyptus trees being no exception. Sugar glider nests are used as a den for hiding while sleeping as well as a place to raise their young. Sugar gliders are marsupials. They have a pouch in which their young develop, like the opossums we’ve previously discussed. The time of year a sugar glider breeds depends on the species as well as their location, with some individuals breeding year round. Mama sugar gliders will typically give birth to one or two babies who will spend about three months developing in her pouch. After this, they’ll be left in the nest as they continue to grow, and by the time they reach about a year or two of age, they may either stay on as an adult in their family group or fly away to find a new territory.

Okay, maybe “fly” isn’t the best word to use. Although, sugar gliders sort of have wings, they can’t necessarily fly the way a bird or bat might. Again, as the name implies, these mammals glide - you could think of it as gracefully falling. They’ve been recorded covering more than 350 feet (107 meters) in a single leap. This acrobatic act can be highly effective for escaping hungry jaws, but sugar gliders are still taken by birds of prey such as owls, as well as snakes. They’re not the largest snack available to predators in the forest, though, averaging about a pound (0.45 kilograms) in weight and a foot and a half (45.7 centimeters) in length including that long bushy tail. If they can stay light on their feet and avoid predators, though, sugar gliders may live to be a decade old!

We’ll leave you with this to think about: this sugar glider is called the mahogany glider. They were first described in the 1880s and it was more than 100 years before they were “rediscovered” in Australian forests. Originally thought to be a subspecies of a different glider, it took almost four years before they received classification as their own species.

For more facts on sugar gliders, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.