A sugar glider is a tiny arboreal (lives in trees) marsupials (non-placental mammal of the order Marsupialia). Sugar gliders are part of the genus Petaurus Breviceps and originate in Australia and New Guinea.
Sugar gliders are very unusual looking animals which is most of their appeal. Sugar gliders tend to be about a foot long from their nose to the end of their tail and weigh between 4 and 6 ounces. Actually half of their length works out to be their tail. The tail is very useful to a sugar glider as it acts as a rudder when they are flying through the air, in addition to helping them carry nesting supplies. How far can they glide? It has been documented that a sugar glider has glided up to 150 feet. The other very noticeable physical feature of the sugar gliders is the thin membrane of skin they have that stretches from their wrists to their ankles, the Patagium. This membrane allows them to in essence fly or glide from branch to branch and tree to tree.
The colors and markings of a sugar glider a beautiful in appearance, though pretty standard. They tend to have a grayish color fur with a black stripe running along their entire back. Their tail is a lovely bushy consistency with a black tip. When you flip a sugar glider over you will see the soft white belly. On the female sugar glider's belly you will find a pouch that the females use to house their young after birth, called Joeys. It is this pouch that identifies the sugar gliders as marsupials.
Another noticeable physical feature of the sugar gliders is the hair comb. The hair comb is a pair of semi-fused digits of the rear feet that house thin claws used to comb the sugar glider's fur. The gliders groom themselves by scratching themselves with their rear feet and licking the dirt they collect off of the feet.
Lastly, and usually the most noticeable characteristic to new sugar glider owners is that sugar gliders are nocturnal creatures which mean that they are mostly active at night.
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