Squirrel Glider

Fascinating facts about the Squirrel Glider

• Scientists believed the squirrel glider vanished from South Australia after 1939, but DNA analysis later proved a surviving population. The species' range stretches from Bordertown on the South Australia-Victoria border through south-eastern Australia to northern Queensland, covering both dry sclerophyll forests and wetter eucalypt woodlands.
• A squirrel glider can launch itself from a branch and travel as far as 50 m before landing on another tree, a distance rarely observed in captivity. Its gliding membrane stretches from the fifth front toe to the back of the foot on each side, providing the aerodynamic surface needed for such long-range leaps. When it glides, the animal uses its prehensile tail as a rudder, allowing it to steer and adjust its trajectory mid-air.
• During a glide the squirrel glider steers with its prehensile tail, using it like a rudder to change direction mid-air. The tail is also capable of curling around branches, a homologous trait shared with ring-tail possums that provides an extra grip when climbing. This tail control gives the glider precise manoeuvring among the canopy, helping it navigate dense forest and avoid ground predators.
• The squirrel glider's pregnancy lasts only 18 days. After birth the tiny joey immediately crawls into the mother's marsupium and clings to a teat, remaining there for roughly three months, after which the mother nurses them for about four more months before they become independent at ten months.
• To obtain a sugary drink the squirrel glider chews a hole through the trunk of a tree, causing sap to flow steadily from the wound. It favours the sap of eucalyptus and red bloodwood trees, which it drinks directly from the drip, complementing a diet that is primarily fruit and insects, and also includes pollen, nectar, leaves and bark.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Squirrel Glider

In the moonlit eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia, a tiny, iridescent creature takes to the skies, its membrane-like patagium glowing like a luminescent sail as it soars through the darkness. The squirrel glider, with its enormous, round eyes and delicate, lace-like ears, is a master of nocturnal navigation, using its acute senses to chart a course through the treetops with effortless precision. As it glides, its tiny paws tucked up tight, it embodies a perfect marriage of fragility and fearlessness, a whispered promise of wonder in the silent, shadowy world of the night.

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