08/02/2025
Sugar gliders are squirrel-sized arboreal marsupials that inhabit the forests of Australia and New Guinea. They are highly social, living in small colonies or family groups numbering up to seven adults and their offspring. Sugar gliders are largely nocturnal and rarely come to the ground, finding both shelter and food in the trees.
The sugar glider's main distinguishing feature is a soft membrane between its wrists and ankles called a patagium, which allows it to glide from tree to tree as though using a parachute. These “wrist-winged gliders” can float on air up to a distance nearly the width of a football field!
They are excellent “aviators,” thanks to their wide field of vision—and they can triangulate distances and glide ratios by bobbing their head before launch. Once airborne, they steer toward their target by tilting their hands and arms, adjusting the tension in their “wings,” and using their long, flat, bushy tail as a rudder.
While named for their penchant for eating forest sweets like acacia gum, eucalyptus sap, and flower nectar, sugar gliders are actually omnivorous opportunistic feeders, consuming both plant and animal matter. The little sugar glider’s menu choice has a dark side, though. Their appetite for the endangered swift parrot’s nestlings in Tasmania is a grave threat to the bird’s survival there.
Being pocket-sized with big eyes and having the unusual "superpower" of gliding makes this marsupial popular in the pet world. But wildlife—even adorable ones—typically do not make good household pets. They are long lived and require plenty of space and others of their own kind to thrive. It is illegal to own a pet sugar glider in the state of California.
