--- title: "Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Patagium gliding membrane, glides that can reach about 150 feet between trees, and an appetite for eucalyptus sap and sweet nectar." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/sugar-glider-1.webp" published: "2026-08-31" updated: "2026-09-13" --- # Sugar Glider (*Petaurus breviceps*) > **Status**: Checked against 7 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Patagium gliding membrane, glides that can reach about 150 feet between trees, and an appetite for eucalyptus sap and sweet nectar. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Hyperpop & Kawaii Future Bass // 100 gecs, "757" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/4vwHBxN5OGtUqqUWvWClGd) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6MV1nxxGf8) > **Vibe Match**: Pitch-shifted candy synth chaos and hyper-kinetic glitch bounce for a marsupial named for its taste in forest sweets, launching glides that can reach about 150 feet. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Petaurus breviceps* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2016-2.rlts.t16731a21959798.en)) - **Superpower**: A patagium gliding membrane running wrist to ankle, letting it glide up to about 150 feet between trees while steering with its tail as a rudder. - **Habitat**: Forests of New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia (range of the species before its 2020 split) - **Diet**: Eucalyptus sap, acacia gum, honeydew, and insects, plus pollen and nectar - **Tags**: marsupial, woodland, nocturnal, glider, omnivore ## Natural History & Behavior ## Built to Fall With Style The sugar glider's big trick is a soft membrane called a patagium, stretched between each wrist and ankle. The membrane works as an airfoil, and a glide can reach about 150 feet (over 45 meters) between trees. It steers mid-glide by tilting its hands, adjusting tension in the membrane, and using its long, flat tail as a rudder. The membrane first shows as a ridge along a joey's side, most visible at the armpit, about five days after birth. A 2023 study found that a gene called *Wnt5a* helps it form, and that bats' wing membranes evolved using the same gene; in mice, it likely shapes the outer ear. Gliding has evolved as many as six separate times in living mammals, and sugar gliders and bats grow their membranes with some of the same limb-building genes. ## About as Heavy as a Baseball Its head and body run 4.7 to 12 inches (120 to 320 millimeters), plus a tail of 6 to 18 inches (150 to 480 millimeters). It weighs 3 to 5 ounces (85 to 141 grams), about as much as a baseball, and lives 4 to 5 years in the wild, up to 15 in expert care. Its diet swings with the seasons. In spring and summer it eats mostly insects, mainly moths and beetles; in autumn and winter it switches to plant foods such as eucalyptus sap and pollen. > **Torpor Through a Storm** Tracked through a storm with category-1 cyclone wind speeds on the Australian coast, sugar gliders stayed inactive or cut back their foraging, and seven of the ten with data entered torpor. Body temperature fell as low as 13.8°C (57°F), and deep torpor cut energy use by up to 67 percent. Every glider in the study survived and resumed normal foraging over the following night or nights. ## The Family Scent A colony is a family: up to seven related adults plus their young, sharing around 2.5 acres of territory. The adult males mark the territory with saliva and scent from their anal, hand, and foot glands, and mark every other member with glands on the forehead and chest. One dominant male usually does most of the marking, and any glider without that shared scent gets attacked the moment it's noticed. Frightened, a glider can ooze a white, oily secretion that smells of soured fruit from its paracloacal glands, or stand on its hind legs, often with its mouth open. A really frightened one may lie on its back with its feet in the air, calling out. ## One Species Became Three Described in 1838, the sugar glider was treated as a single species ranging across New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia until a 2020 genetic and anatomical study split the Australian gliders into three: the sugar glider proper, Krefft's glider, and the savanna glider. The IUCN's Least Concern rating for *Petaurus breviceps* dates to 2016, before that split. The study's authors note the old species was not listed as threatened because of its supposedly broad range, and warn that splitting it has important conservation implications for all three. A DNA study of pet gliders from seven US states found that all those sampled probably came from a source population near Sorong, in Indonesia's West Papua, with no sign of any harvested in Papua New Guinea or Australia. Sugar gliders were brought to the US for the exotic pet trade in the 1990s. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How far can a sugar glider glide between trees? Its patagium, a soft membrane stretched between wrist and ankle on each side, lets it glide from tree to tree. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance says a glide can reach about 150 feet (over 45 meters). It steers by tilting its hands, adjusting tension in the membrane, and using its long tail as a rudder. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance]())* ### How does a sugar glider recognize its own colony? Males mark every other member of the group with scent glands on the forehead and chest, and one dominant male usually does most of the marking. Any glider that turns up without that shared scent is treated as an intruder and attacked immediately, though members of the same group never fight beyond threats. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### What happens to a sugar glider's diet when winter arrives? In spring and summer it eats mostly insects, especially moths and beetles. In autumn and winter it switches to plant food instead, such as eucalyptus sap and pollen. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### Are the sugar gliders sold as US pets actually from Australia? Not according to a DNA study of pet gliders from seven US states, which found that all those sampled probably came from a source population near Sorong, in Indonesia's West Papua, with no sign of any harvested in Papua New Guinea or Australia. Sugar gliders were brought to the US for the exotic pet trade in the 1990s; Australia had banned exporting them in 1982. *(Source: [Campbell et al. 2019]())* ## Sources 1. [Petaurus breviceps (sugar glider). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 2. [Sugar Glider. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.]() 3. [Salas et al. (2016). Petaurus breviceps. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T16731A21959798.]() 4. [Nowack et al. (2015). Snoozing through the storm: torpor use during a natural disaster. Scientific Reports.]() 5. [Feigin et al. (2023). Convergent deployment of ancestral functions during the evolution of mammalian flight membranes. Science Advances.]() 6. [Cremona et al. (2020). Integrative taxonomic investigation ofPetaurus breviceps(Marsupialia: Petauridae) reveals three distinct species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.]() 7. [Campbell et al. (2019). The origin of exotic pet sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) kept in the United States of America. PeerJ.]() *Published August 31, 2026. 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