Sugar Gliders

Alex Re (00:00): Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week, and I guarantee you, you're going to come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before This week. We're talking about an adorable animal with an amazing adaptation. You might associate them with flying squirrels or bats, but they have a much more unusual relative. So keep your eyes in the trees because we're heading to the forests of Australia to talk about sugar gliders.

(00:53): The sugar glider's scientific name is Petrus Breep, meaning short headed springboard. These animals are marsupials, which if you remember from the kangaroo episode, are mammals that carry and develop their offspring in a pouch. Because of this. Sugar gliders are in the order dip row to Dante, and they're around 155 species in this order, including kangaroos, koalas, and possums. So even though they look like squirrels, sugar gliders are actually more closely related to kangaroos because squirrels are rodents, but their closest relatives are most likely striped possums. And just like most marsupials, sugar gliders can mainly be found in Australia and on the island of New Guinea. They are arboreal animals living in tropical and cool temperate forests. Arboreal means that they spend most of their lives in or around trees, rarely touching the ground. Sugar gliders get their common name from their affinity for sweet foods and the flat that connects their forearms to their hind legs that they use to leap in between trees.

(02:05): This membrane, which is similar to a wing, is called a patagium, and it allows them to glide distances close to the width of a soccer field Over 160 feet. They'll jump from a tree and extend their limbs, which opens up the patagium. This kind of acts like a parachute. They also use their bushy tails as propellers and can change directions in midair by moving their limbs. But even though that might remind you of flying squirrels, remember that they're not actually that closely related. They both evolved to glide separately over long periods of time. And this is called convergent evolution when two organisms develop similar traits because they live in similar environments. Another example of this is shark fins and dolphin fins. Sugar gliders are nocturnal, meaning that they're active at night and they sleep during the day. Males weigh around three to six ounces and females weigh between three to four and a half ounces, and they measure about 125 to 150 centimeters from the top of their head to the end of their tails.

(03:14): So these are pretty small animals. They have soft, thick, gray fur that covers the body and tail, and one of their most identifying features is a black stripe that runs the length of their body in line with the spine and the crown of the head. The tip of their tail is black. Also because they're active at night, they need some way of sensing their environment so that they can get around. That's why they have really big eyes, which basically allow them to see in the dark. What's really cool is that sugar gliders can triangulate exactly where they need to glide and how long they need to glide by bobbing their heads before they launch. And just like us, they have opposable thumbs which help them grab onto trees and each of their fingers on their front limbs have sharp claws that they can use to hook onto pretty much any surface. Okay, let's talk about their eating habits right after the break.

(04:23): The science word that I want to talk to you about today is fossil. Contrary to what you might think fossils are not actually made of bone. When an organism dies and gets buried in sediment, the bone slowly becomes rock over time. And there are different kinds of fossils like trace fossils, which can be fossilized. Footprints fossils are only made in the most perfect conditions too. So 99.9% of everything that has ever lived on earth won't become a fossil. Even that small percent though can tell us a whole lot about what life was like before us.

(05:07): Sugar gliders are omnivorous, so they'll eat plants and animals. Mainly their diet consists of fruits and vegetables, but even though they look cute, they're also predators. They've been known to eat insects. Mice and other small mammals, depending on the season and availability of food, they're able to glide in between trees and they've even been observed catching moths in mid-flight, but they won't stop there because they'll also feed on nectar, pollen, acacia and eucalyptus tree sap, and they've been seen searching tree cones for spiders and beetles too. So as you can tell, sugar gliders have a whole lot of variety when it comes to what they eat. This extensive diet is really important because it allows them to get a lot of different nutrients and gives the glider the energy to be constantly active. Sugar gliders can eat up to 10 or 15% of their total body weight each day to meet their energy requirements.

(06:10): They use their night vision sharp toes and ears that are able to move independently to locate prey. These ears help them to pinpoint sources of food, but they also help to find out if predators are nearby. If we need to figure out where sound is coming from, we'll have to turn our heads near that general direction, but they only have to move their ears when they hunt for their prey, they'll locate it and wait for it to stop moving. Then they'll glide over to it with the help of the patagium and they ambush it. But while I just talked about how effective they are as predators, many are content just getting most of their food from trees in the form of sap pollen and fruit sugar gliders reach maturity at nine to 10 months old. Female sugar gliders breed sometime between June and January, and males actually have a bald spot on the top of their head, which is a scent gland that releases pheromones.

(07:09): The diamond shaped patch appears on the forehead between 12 and 15 months, and these pheromones can be used by the males to attract a female. Their gestation period is only around 16 days. The human gestation period is nine months, and then the offspring or Joey's live in the mother's pouch for another 10 days. Females only have about one or two Joeys every year. And at birth, the Joeys weigh somewhere between two to three grams and are about the same size as a grain of rice. And if you remember from our kangaroo episode, you'll know that marsupials feed their offspring different types of milk when they're at different stages of their growth. And what's really interesting about that is that females can suckle Joey's at different ages, meaning they produce different types of milk at the same time. If a Joey Unlatched from the mother, it can be dangerous because they lack the ability to latch back on for the first few weeks of their life.

(08:12): After leaving the pouch, they still come back for milk, but they grow more curious and will search for food on their own. They're weaned off of milk at about 16 weeks and their average lifespan is between three and nine years in the wild. They usually live longer in captivity with an average lifespan of around 10 to 15 years, and the oldest sugar glider live to be almost 18 years old. Sugar gliders are very social and need companionship. They live in colonies of six to 10 individuals in territories of a hector or more, which is about two and a half acres. The colony is led by a dominant male who controls who's in the colony or not by marking them with scent glands, some colonies can be as large as 20 to 40 individuals with two alpha males mating and producing. Most of the Joeys young sugar gliders leave their natal groups after around 10 months to join other colonies or start their own.

(09:14): They nest in hollowed out trees with other adults surrounded by leaves to keep them warm and they can use their tail to transport nest materials. Colonies of gliders are exclusive. Members of existing colonies don't like newcomers and may attack them until they either leave or eventually find their place in the colony. They mark and protect their territories by using urine and other pheromones, and they can make invisible fences made out of pheromones that cover up to two acres of land. So they obviously communicate a lot by using smell, but they can also communicate by using sound sugar. Gliders have their own communication system that's comprised of clicks, growls, yips, and also body language. And when they're content, they'll make purring sounds like cats. And because their social lives are so important, they're constantly vocalizing with each other. They also participate in grooming each other, which can also be seen in monkeys and apes. Grooming is a great way to build connections with other members of the group. Alright, let's take our last break and when we get back we'll talk about some more sugar glider behaviors. Okay, time for our trivia question. Where is a shrimp's heart located?

(10:56): A shrimp's heart is located near the bottom of its head.

(11:08): Okay, welcome back. So sugar gliders can also use vocal communication in a different way besides just with other members of the colony. When they feel threatened or angry, the sugar glider will lean back and make a loud chattering noise that sounds like the yapping of a small dog. If this warning sound doesn't work to ward off the threat, the sugar glider will attack at full force. Some parts of the sugar glider's range will get very cold in the winter, so oftentimes they'll sleep huddled together to share body warmth. Sugar glider Joeys aren't able to thermoregulate for the first a hundred days of their lives and the huddling up will help them survive in the cold temperatures. Another adaptation that sugar gliders have that allows them to survive in colder temperatures is torpor. This is basically like hibernation where their metabolism slows down dramatically and their body temperature drops.

(12:07): Not only does this help them survive in the cold, but it also allows them to use a lot less energy. But unlike certain animals that will go into torra for months at a time, sugar gliders can do this for a day and then become active again the next day. Sugar gliders can go into Torra for about 16 hours a day if food is scarce or it's colder than usual. They also play multiple important roles in the ecosystem due to their small size. They can be preyed for tons of different animals like owls, CBAs, goana, and cats. And they're also very important pollinators to the forest ecosystem. When they land on different plants to drink their nectar, pollen gets trapped in their fur, then they'll go to another flower and deposit the pollen to fertilize that plant. Luckily, their populations are pretty stable, and this is because even after forests are cut down, they can still survive to some extent.

(13:06): Their ability to glide helps them reach hard to access food sources that other animals may not be able to get to, but they do have some issues. They're threatened by feral animals like domestic cats, bush fires, and can still be impacted by deforestation. One of their main problems right now though is that they're highly sought after in the exotic pet trade. These animals are adorable, but they're not meant to be kept inside of the house. Some people breed them to be kept as pets, but they don't make good house pets because they're high maintenance. First of all, they require a lot of space to roam and there aren't many vets that can give them the care that they need. And because they're in high demand, there are breeders that don't care about the wellbeing of the animals and are just in it for the prophets.

(13:57): Another problem could arise if they escape. They love eating the endangered swift parrots nestlings, and they have contributed to the threatened status of these birds In Tasmania. Unfortunately, it's only illegal in about four states to own a sugar glider and only six other states require a license to own one. This means that in 40 states, anyone can buy a sugar glider with no previous qualifications needed. So as you can tell, they still need our help. If you want to improve the wellbeing of sugar gliders in the wild and in captivity, you should check out the Sugar Glider Foundation, sugar Glider, guardians and Wires. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of sugar gliders, you can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at onwildlife.org. You can also email us with any questions at On Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com, and you can follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife or on TikTok at wildlife. And don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode, and that's On Wildlife.

Jess Avellino (15:19): You've Been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional financial, real estate tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.