back to thumbnails

Queensland Mammals

Share
twitterlinkedinfacebook
Image 58 of 133
< Prev Next >
1064880.jpg
Sugar glider  (Petaurus breviceps) feeding on the sugary sap of Red Stringybark or Red Mahogany. The sugar glider is a small, omnivorous, arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass. The common name refers to its preference for sugary nectarous foods and ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel. Due to convergent evolution, they have very similar appearance and habits to the flying squirrel, but are not closely related. The scientific name, Petaurus breviceps, translates from Latin as "short-headed rope-dancer", a reference to their canopy acrobatics.