How long will a sugar glider live for

How Long Do Sugar Gliders Live?

Tiny marsupials with large eyes and silver blue-gray fur, Sugar gliders are adorable-looking creatures and members of the same family as Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, and wombats.

In the right condition, these tony nocturnal animals are great pets.

The name sugar gliders finds its origins from the Latin word Petaurus breviceps which translate to short-headed rope-dancer.

In this article, I will answer the question, How long do sugar gliders live? and share some additional details on this topic.

So, without further ado, lets begin!

Read on to know more.

How long do sugar gliders live on average?

The average lifespan of a domesticated sugar glider ranges from 5 to 15 years!

This lifespan depends on the living conditions of this tiny marsupial. So lets take a look at what plays a significant role in determining the sugar gliders lifespan.

Meeting the Nutritional Needs

Diet is one of the significant things that can help your marsupial live a long and happy life. With each animal, the definition of proper diet changes.

So, lets take a look at the proper diet for sugar gliders.

Since they are small in size, sugar gliders have small stomachs as well.

This means that they need a constant supply of fluids to keep them hydrated and healthy. Following are some liquids that ensure your pets health:

• Apple juice
• Gatorade
• Water

Yes, all three of these things are safe for your pet to consume and will ensure that he stays hydrated throughout the day.

Moving on

The proper diet for sugar gliders has the following important ingredients that provide all the essential and vital nutrients:

• A gravy formula that contains all the nutrients that these animals need and adds the necessary moisture and flavor to the food you get in the market
• Bread, apples, and yogurt are also some important ingredients that your sugar glider needs in his diet

If you fulfill the recommended daily dietary and caloric intake of your pet, it will help increase the life expectancy.

Foods that are Harmful to Your Sugar Glider

While some foods help increase the life expectancy of your sugar glider, others can decrease it!

In this section of the article, I would like to go through some foods that you must avoid giving to your tiny marsupial.

• Fruits and vegetables that arent organic can decrease your pets lifespan as they contain a lot of harmful chemicals and pesticides. Even a trace amount of these toxic substances can adversely affect your pets lifespan
• Foods high in sugar, salt, and fat such as chocolates, ice cream, and raw meats must never be given to your sugar glider as they will decrease your pets lifespan!

Moving on

Things that Can Affect Your Pets Lifespan

Food isnt the only thing that can affect your sugar gliders lifespan. In this section of the article, I will go through a few other things that do.

So, lets get started.

Competitiveness Among Male Sugar Gliders

If you have two or more male sugar gliders, the chances are that at least one of them wont make it to the age of 15---even if you take special care of the diet.

Why is that so?

Male sugar gliders are aggressive and are known to fight each other to death---even if there isnt another female present.

So, what can you do about it?

For starters, if you wish to keep multiple male sugar gliders, it is best if you nutre them both. A male-female pairing is best.

Having a Buddy

Everyone wants a friend, right?

Sugar gliders are social animals and have a longer lifespan if they have a companion or a buddy to call their own and share a life with.

Usually, males dont mix well with each other so, a male-female pairing is the best.

Premature death can occur due to loneliness.

Sad, right?

The thing is, sugar gliders can develop depression because of loneliness as humans do. And, depression is a known cause for shortening lifespan.

So, go! Get your sugar glider a companion!

A Happy Sugar Glider is a Healthy Sugar Glider

Sugar gliders live long when they are happy.

And to be and stay happy, they need a person.

So, the best thing you can do is to provide them with a companion and spend some time with your pet to bond and keep happy!

Just like other animals, they thrive when they are shown affection.

So, make sure that you give your pet as much love and attention as you can!

Summing Up: How Long Do Sugar Gliders Live?

The average lifespan of a sugar glider ranger from 5-15 years.

Thats a significant difference, right?

The lifespan of this animal depends on its living conditions.

If you give your pet the right food, provide him with a companion, and show affection, hell be happy and in turn healthy.

In this article, I aimed to share the lifespan of the sugar gliders as well as some other details that can help you increase this marsupials lifespan.

I hope it has been helpful.

Sugar Glider

The Sugar Glider is a small species of marsupial. These creatures are similar to flying squirrels in that they glide by using flaps of skin between their legs. However, these pocket-sized marsupials are not closely related to squirrels, or any rodent.

Surprisingly, these little mammals in the possum family have more exotic relatives. Researchers classify these mammals as marsupials. Because of this, their closest relatives are other possums, koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and other marsupials. Read on to learn about the Sugar Glider.

Description of the Sugar Glider

Wild Sugar Gliders have brownish-grey fur, large eyes, long tails, and a large flap of skin between their legs. Their fur is darker around their eyes, ears, legs, and in a stripe down their backs. Their underbellies and chests are white or cream in color.

As possum species go, Sugars are relatively small. They measure between 9 and 12 inches long, and weigh around 4 or 5 ounces. Males of this species are usually larger than females.

Interesting Facts About the Sugar Glider

These cute little marsupials live as pets in many households across the globe. What makes them so interesting? Learn more about what makes Sugar Gliders unique below.

• Whats in a Name While the glider part of their name might be understandable by now, what about the sugar? The name comes from their dietary preferences. Sugars like to eat sugary foods, and nectar in particular is a favorite.
• A Whale of a Tail The Sugar has an incredibly long tail. In fact, its tail is usually as long as its entire body measuring about six inches long, while its body measures five or six inches!
• Rudder That long tail comes in handy when youre gliding through the air. These critters use their tails to steer when gliding from tree to tree, so they can land in just the right spot.
• Sugar Glider Breeding As pets, these little mammals come in a variety of colors. Breeders have developed them in albino, cream, white, silver, mahogany, and more.

Habitat of the Sugar Glider

This species relies on forested areas where they can forage for food and glide from tree to tree. Their habitats also must have dense vegetation to protect them from predators. Some of the different habitats that they occupy include eucalyptus forests, woodlands, rainforests, plantations, scrub forests, and more.

Distribution of the Sugar Glider

In their native range, Sugar Gliders inhabit northeast and eastern Australia. They live relatively close to the coastline throughout Australia. You can find them in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.

These marsupials also live in New Guinea, and some of the surrounding islands. You can also find Sugars as pets in households worldwide, though in some places it is illegal to own one as a pet.

Diet of the Sugar Glider

Despite their name, this species doesnt only eat sugary foods, though it does have quite the sweet tooth. Sugar Gliders are omnivores, which means that they eat both plant and animal matter. Their diet varies based on the season and what foods are available.

During the spring and summer, this species feeds mostly on invertebrates. Some common prey items include spiders, beetles, insect larvae, moths, and more. As fall arrives their diet shifts to plant-based foods, like tree sap, pollen, honeydew, and more.

Sugar Glider and Human Interaction

Thankfully, human activity has not heavily impacted Sugar Glider populations. Even though habitat destruction poses a problem, their numbers are high and their populations are healthy. The IUCN lists Sugar Gliders as Least Concern. Sadly, some of their close cousins that live in the same regions do not fare as well.

Domestication

Though humans keep these marsupials as pets, we have not domesticated them in any way.

Does the Sugar Glider Make a Good Pet

Sugar Gliders can make good pets, but you should always do your research before adding any pet to the family. Even though they are small, Sugars need plenty of room to climb and explore. Though they are about the same size and a hamster, their needs are relatively intensive.

Sugar Glider Care

As pets, these creatures need lots of climbing space, so large enclosures are a must. They are social creatures, so you should not keep one alone unless you plan on interacting with your pet multiple times per day. You must also feed them a special diet to ensure they receive enough calcium and other vitamins and minerals.

Behavior of the Sugar Glider

This species is nocturnal, and most active at night. Though they spend their days sleeping, they are incredibly agile and active overnight. They live in groups, and each group protects a small territory from other groups. They use saliva, urine, and gland secretions to mark their territories.

Reproduction of the Sugar Glider

As marsupials, Sugar Gliders have short gestation periods and carry their underdeveloped offspring in a pouch after birth. After approximately two weeks, females give birth to a pair of young, known as joeys. The joeys climb to the pouch and stay there until they are about two months old. At around three months old they become independent.

Sugar glider

Species of Australian marsupial

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 relatedan 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]

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]

Taxonomy and evolution

The genus Petaurus is believed to have originated in New Guinea during the mid Miocene epoch, approximately 18 to 24 million years ago. The modern Australian Petaurus, along with New Guinean members of what were formerly considered P. breviceps, diverged from their closest living New Guinean relatives ~9-12 mya. They probably dispersed from New Guinea to Australia between 4.8 and ~8.4 mya, with the oldest Petaurus fossils in Australia being dated to 4.46 million years.^[14] This may have been possible due to sea level lowering from about 7 to 10 mya, resulting in land bridges between New Guinea and Australia.

The taxonomy of the species is complex, and is still not fully resolved. It was formerly understood to have a wide range across Australia and New Guinea, being the only glider to have this distribution, and to be divided into seven subspecies, with three occurring in Australia and four in New Guinea.^[15] This traditional subspecific division was based on small morphological differences, such as colour and body size.^[14] However, a 2010 genetic analysis using mitochondrial DNA indicates that these morphologically-defined subspecies may not represent genetically unique populations.^[15]

Further studies have found significant genetic variation within populations traditionally classified in P. breviceps, sufficient to warrant splitting the species into multiple. The subspecies P. b. biacensis, from Biak Island off of New Guinea, was reclassified as a separate species, the Biak glider (Petaurus biacensis).^{[note 5]} In 2020, a landmark study suggested that P. breviceps actually comprised three cryptic species: the Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus), found throughout most of eastern Australia and introduced to Tasmania, the savanna glider (Petaurus ariel), native to northern Australia, and a more narrowly defined P. breviceps, restricted to a small section of coastal forest in southern Queensland and most of New South Wales. In addition, other sugar glider populations throughout this range (such as those on New Guinea and the Cape York Peninsula) may represent undescribed species or be conspecific with previously described species. This indicates that contrary to previous findings of a large range (which in fact applied to P. notatus and, to a lesser extent, to P. ariel), P. breviceps is a range-restricted species that is sensitive to ecological disasters, such as the 2019-20 Australian bushfires, which significantly affected large portions of its habitat.^[4][5][16]

P. breviceps and P. notatus are estimated to have diverged ~1 million years ago, and may have originated from long term geographic isolation. The early-mid Pleistocene saw an uplifting of the Great Dividing Range, contributing to and coinciding with aridification of the interior of Australia, including on the western side of the range.^[15] This, as well as other climactic and geographic factors, may have isolated the ancestors of P. breviceps to refugia on the eastern, coastal side of the Great Dividing Range.^[4] This would be an example of allopatric speciation.

Distribution and habitat

Sugar gliders are distributed in the coastal forests of southeastern Queensland and most of New South Wales. Their distribution extends to altitudes of 2000m in the eastern ranges. In parts of its range, it may overlap with Krefft's glider (P. notatus).^[5][17]

The sugar glider occurs in sympatry with the squirrel glider and yellow-bellied glider; and their coexistence is permitted through niche partitioning where each species has different patterns of resource use.^[18]

Like all arboreal, nocturnal marsupials, sugar gliders are active at night, and they shelter during the day in tree hollows lined with leafy twigs.^[19]

The average home range of sugar gliders is 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), and is largely related to the abundance of food sources;^[20] density ranges from two to six individuals per hectare (0.82.4 per acre).

Native owls (Ninox sp.)^[17] are their primary predators; others in their range include kookaburras, goannas, snakes, and quolls.^[21] Feral cats (Felis catus) also represent a significant threat.^[17][21]

Appearance and anatomy

The sugar glider has a squirrel-like body with a long, partially (weakly)^[22] prehensile tail. The length from the nose to the tip of the tail is about 2430cm (912in), and males and females weigh 140 and 115 grams (5 and 4oz) respectively.^[23] Heart rate range is 200300 beats per minute, and respiratory rate is 1640 breaths per minute.^[24] The sugar glider is a sexually dimorphic species, with males typically larger than females. Sexual dimorphism has likely evolved due to increased mate competition arising through social group structure; and is more pronounced in regions of higher latitude, where mate competition is greater due to increased food availability.^[25]

The fur coat on the sugar glider is thick, soft, and is usually blue-grey; although some have been known to be yellow, tan or (rarely) albino.^[a] A black stripe is seen from its nose to midway on its back. Its belly, throat, and chest are cream in colour. Males have four scent glands, located on the forehead, chest, and two paracloacal (associated with, but not part of the cloaca, which is the common opening for the intestinal, urinal and genital tracts) that are used for marking of group members and territory.^[17] Scent glands on the head and chest of males appear as bald spots. Females also have a paracloacal scent gland and a scent gland in the pouch, but do not have scent glands on the chest or forehead.^[17]

The sugar glider is nocturnal; its large eyes help it to see at night and its ears swivel to help locate prey in the dark. The eyes are set far apart, allowing more precise triangulation from launching to landing locations while gliding.^[26]

Each foot on the sugar glider has five digits, with an opposable toe on each hind foot. These opposable toes are clawless, and bend such that they can touch all the other digits, like a human thumb, allowing it to firmly grasp branches. The second and third digits of the hind foot are partially syndactylous (fused together), forming a grooming comb.^[22] The fourth digit of the forefoot is sharp and elongated, aiding in extraction of insects under the bark of trees.^[17]

The gliding membrane extends from the outside of the fifth digit of each forefoot to the first digit of each hind foot. When the legs are stretched out, this membrane allows the sugar glider to glide a considerable distance. The membrane is supported by well developed tibiocarpalis, humerodorsalis and tibioabdominalis muscles, and its movement is controlled by these supporting muscles in conjunction with trunk, limb and tail movement.^[11]

Lifespan in the wild is up to 9 years; is typically up to 12 years in captivity,^[10] and the maximum reported lifespan is 17.8 years.^[27]

Biology and behaviour

Gliding

The sugar glider is one of a number of volplane (gliding) possums in Australia. It glides with the fore- and hind-limbs extended at right angles to the body, with feet flexed upwards.^[26] The animal launches itself from a tree, spreading its limbs to expose the gliding membranes. This creates an aerofoil enabling it to glide 50 metres (55 yards) or more.^[28] For every 1.82m (6ft 0in) travelled horizontally when gliding, it falls 1m (3ft 3in).^[26] Steering is controlled by moving limbs and adjusting the tension of the gliding membrane; for example, to turn left, the left forearm is lowered below the right.^[26]

This form of arboreal locomotion is typically used to travel from tree to tree; the species rarely descends to the ground. Gliding provides three dimensional avoidance of arboreal predators, and minimal contact with ground dwelling predators; as well as possible benefits in decreasing time and energy consumption^[29] spent foraging for nutrient poor foods that are irregularly distributed.^[30] Young carried in the pouch of females are protected from landing forces by the septum that separates them within the pouch.^[26]

Torpor

Sugar gliders can tolerate ambient air temperatures of up to 40C (104F) through behavioural strategies such as licking their coat and exposing the wet area, as well as drinking small quantities of water.^[17]In cold weather, sugar gliders will huddle together to avoid heat loss, and will enter torpor to conserve energy.^[31] Huddling as an energy conserving mechanism is not as efficient as torpor.^[31] Before entering torpor, a sugar glider will reduce activity and body temperature normally in order to lower energy expenditure and avoid torpor.^[32][33] With energetic constraints, the sugar glider will enter into daily torpor for 223 hours while in rest phase.^[31] Torpor differs from hibernation in that torpor is usually a short-term daily cycle. Entering torpor saves energy for the animal by allowing its body temperature to fall to a minimum of 10.4C (50.7F)^[31] to 19.6C (67.3F).^[34] When food is scarce, as in winter, heat production is lowered in order to reduce energy expenditure.^[35] 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.^[33][34] The use of torpor is most frequent during winter, likely in response to low ambient temperature, rainfall, and seasonal fluctuation in food sources.^[31]

Diet and nutrition

Sugar gliders are seasonally adaptive omnivores with a wide variety of foods in their diet, and mainly forage in the lower layers of the forest canopy.^[18][36] Sugar gliders may obtain up to half their daily water intake through drinking rainwater, with the remainder obtained through water held in its food.^[29] In summer they are primarily insectivorous, and in the winter when insects (and other arthropods) are scarce, they are mostly exudativorous (feeding on acacia gum, eucalyptus sap, manna,^[b] honeydew or lerp).^[40] Sugar gliders have an enlarged caecum to assist in digestion of complex carbohydrates obtained from gum and sap.^[41]

To obtain sap or gum from plants, sugar gliders will strip the bark off trees or open bore holes with their teeth to access stored liquid.^[36] Little time is spent foraging for insects, as it is an energetically expensive process, and sugar gliders will wait until insects fly into their habitat, or stop to feed on flowers.^[36]Gliders consume approximately 11 g of dry food matter per day.^[29] This equates to roughly 8% and 9.5% of body weight for males and females, respectively.

They are opportunistic feeders and can be carnivorous, preying mostly on lizards and small birds. They eat many other foods when available, such as nectar, acacia seeds, bird eggs, pollen, fungi and native fruits.^[42][43] Pollen can make up a large portion of their diet, therefore sugar gliders are likely to be important pollinators of Banksia species.^[44]

Reproduction

Like most marsupials, female sugar gliders have two ovaries and two uteri; they are polyestrous, meaning they can go into heat several times a year.^[20] The female has a marsupium (pouch) in the middle of her abdomen to carry offspring.^[22] The pouch opens anteriorly, and two lateral pockets extend posteriorly when young are present. Four nipples are usually present in the pouch, although reports of individuals with two nipples have been recorded.^[17] Male sugar gliders have a bifurcated penis to correspond with the two uteri of females.^[45]

The age of sexual maturity in sugar gliders varies slightly between the males and females. 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.^[22]

A sugar glider female gives birth to one (19%) or two (81%) babies (joeys) per litter.^[20] The gestation period is 15 to 17 days, after which the tiny joey 0.2g (0.0071oz) will crawl into a mother's pouch for further development. They are born largely undeveloped and furless, with only the sense of smell being developed. The mother has a scent gland in the external marsupium to attract the sightless joeys from the uterus.^[46] Joeys have a continuous arch of cartilage in their shoulder girdle which disappears soon after birth; this supports the forelimbs, assisting the climb into the pouch.^[47] Young are completely contained in the pouch for 60 days after birth, wherein mammae provide nourishment during the remainder of development.^[46] Eyes first open around 80 days after birth, and young will leave the nest around 110 days after birth.^[17] By the time young are weaned, the thermoregulatory system is developed, and in conjunction with a large body size and thicker fur, they are able to regulate their own body temperature.^[48]

Breeding is seasonal in southeast Australia, with young only born in winter and spring (June to November).^[20] Unlike animals that move along the ground, the sugar glider and other gliding species produce fewer, but heavier, offspring per litter. This allows female sugar gliders to retain the ability to glide when pregnant.^[49]

Socialisation

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. Up to four age classes may exist within each group, although some sugar gliders are solitary, not belonging to a group.^[20] They engage in social grooming, which in addition to improving hygiene and health, helps bond the colony and establish group identity.

Within social communities, there are two codominant males who suppress subordinate males, but show no aggression towards each other. These co-dominant pairs are more related to each other than to subordinates within the group; and share food, nests, mates, and responsibility for scent marking of community members and territories.^[50]

Territory and members of the group are marked with saliva and a scent produced by separate glands on the forehead and chest of male gliders. Intruders who lack the appropriate scent marking are expelled violently.^[8] Rank is established through scent marking; and fighting does not occur within groups, but does occur when communities come into contact with each other.^[17] Within the colony, no fighting typically takes place beyond threatening behaviour.^[51] Each colony defends a territory of about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) where eucalyptus trees provide a staple food source.^{[citation needed]}

Sugar gliders are one of the few species of mammals that exhibit male parental care.^[52] The oldest codominant male in a social community shows a high level of parental care, as he is the probable father of any offspring due to his social status.This paternal care evolved in sugar gliders as young are more likely to survive when parental investment is provided by both parents.^[52] In the sugar glider, biparental care allows one adult to huddle with the young and prevent hypothermia while the other parent is out foraging, as young sugar gliders aren't able to thermoregulate until they are 100 days old (3.5 months).^[52]

Communication in sugar gliders is achieved through vocalisations, visual signals and complex chemical odours.^[17] Chemical odours account for a large part of communication in sugar gliders, similar to many other nocturnal animals. Odours may be used to mark territory, convey health status of an individual, and mark rank of community members. Gliders produce a number of vocalisations including barking and hissing.^{[citation needed]}

Human relations

Conservation

Under the prior taxonomy, the sugar glider was not considered endangered, and its conservation rank was "Least Concern (LC)" on the IUCN Red List.^[2] However, with newer taxonomic studies indicating that it has a small and restricted range, it is now thought to be far more sensitive to potential threats. For example, the species' native range was hit hard by the 2019-20 Australian bushfires, which occurred just a few months prior to the publishing of the study indicating the true extent of its range. Sugar gliders use tree hollows, making them especially sensitive to intense fires.^[53] However, 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. Sugar gliders may persist in areas that have undergone mild-moderate selective logging, as long as three to five hollow bearing trees are retained per hectare.^[54] Although not currently threatened by habitat loss, the ability of sugar gliders to forage and avoid predators successfully may be decreased in areas of high light pollution.^[55]

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).^[56] 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.^[57]

In captivity

In captivity, the sugar glider 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.^[58] Calcium to phosphorus ratios should be 2:1 to prevent hypocalcemia, sometimes known as hind leg paralysis (HLP).^[59] Their diet should be 50% insects (gut-loaded) or other sources of protein, 25% fruit and 25% vegetables.^[60] Some of the more recognised diets are Bourbon's Modified Leadbeaters (BML),^[61] High Protein Wombaroo (HPW)^[62] and various calcium rich diets with Leadbeaters Mixture (LBM).^[63] Iron storage disease (hemochromatosis) is another dietary problem that has been reported in captive gliders and can lead to fatal complications if not diagnosed and treated early.^[64]

A large amount of attention and environmental enrichment may be required for the highly social species, especially for those kept as individuals. Inadequate social interaction can lead to depression and behavioural disorders such as loss of appetite, irritability and self-mutilation.^[65]

As a pet

In several countries, the sugar glider (or what was formerly considered to be the sugar glider) is popular as an exotic pet, and is sometimes referred to as a pocket pet. In Australia, there is opposition to keeping native animals as pets from Australia's largest wildlife rehabilitation organisation (WIRES),^[66] and concerns from Australian wildlife conservation organisations regarding animal welfare risks including neglect, cruelty and abandonment.^[67]

In Australia, sugar gliders can be kept in Victoria, South Australia, and the Northern Territory. However, they are not allowed to be kept as pets in Western Australia, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland or Tasmania.^[68][69]

DNA analysis indicates that "the USA (sugar) glider population originates from West Papua, Indonesia with no illegal harvesting from other native areas such as Papua New Guinea or Australia".^[12] Given that the West Papuan gliders have been tentatively classified as Krefft's gliders (albeit to be changed in the future),^[13] this indicates that at least the captive gliders kept in the United States are Krefft's gliders, not sugar gliders.

Notes

Species notes

1. ^ Range in red now thought to largely represent a separate species, Krefft's glider (P. notatus); if this is true, P. breviceps (sensu stricto) occupies only a small coastal region of this range, containing parts of southern Queensland and eastern New South Wales. Range in blue now thought to possibly represent multiple non-P. breviceps species, including Krefft's glider (P. notatus), the mahogany glider (P. gracilis), and/or a species complex associated with P. gracilis.^[4][5]
2. ^ It has been recently suggested that P. b. ariel be treated as a separate species, the savanna glider (P. ariel)^[5]
3. ^ P. b. flavidus (Tate and Archbold, 1935) considered a synonym of P. b. papuanus (Thomas 1888)
4. ^ Tate & Archbold, 1935; subspecies P. b. tafa considered a synonym of species P. breviceps^[6]
5. ^ ^{a b} Subspecies (former) P. b. biacensis provisionally considered species: P. biacensis (Biak glider). "Helgen (2007) states that Petaurus biacensis is likely to be conspecific with P. breviceps. P. biacensis appears to differ from the latter mainly by having a higher incidence of melanism (Helgen 2007). We provisionally retain P. biacensis as a separate species pending further taxonomic work, thus following what has become standard treatment (e.g., Flannery 1994, 1995; Groves 2005)."^[2]

References

1. ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rded.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.55. ISBN0-801-88221-4. OCLC62265494.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Salas, L.; Dickman, C.; Helgen, K.; Winter, J.; Ellis, M.; Denny, M.; Woinarski, J.; Lunney, D.; Oakwood, M.; Menkhorst, P. & Strahan, R. (2016). "Petaurus breviceps". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T16731A21959798. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T16731A21959798.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
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General bibliography

• Morcombe, Michael; Morcombe, Irene (1974). Mammals of Australia. Sydney: Australian Universities Press. ISBN0-7249-0017-9.
• Ride, W. D. L. (1970). A guide to the native mammals of Australia. Ella Fry (drawings). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN0195502523.
• Russel, Rupert (1980). Spotlight on possums. Kay Russel (illustrations). Queensland, St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press. ISBN0-7022-1478-7.
• Serventy, Vincent (1977). Wildlife of Australia (Rev.ed.). West Melbourne, Vic.: Thomas Nelson (Australia). ISBN0-17-005168-4.
• Troughton, Ellis (1973). Furred animals of Australia. Neville W. Cayley (colour plates) (Rev. and abridgeded.). Sydney: Angus & Robertson. ISBN0-207-12256-3.
• Van den Beld, John (1992). of Australia: a portrait of the island continent (Reviseded.). Sydney: Collins Australia. ISBN0-7333-0241-6.
• Westmacott, Leonard Cronin (1991). Key guide to Australian mammals. Illustrated by Marion. Balgowlah, NSW: Reed Books. ISBN0-7301-0355-2.

External links