Sugar Glider: New Species Discovered, But With Conservation Implications

A recent study by Charles Darwin University in collaboration with the Australian Museum and the Queensland University of Technology discovered that the sugar glider that was believed to be a single species are three genetically and morphologically distinct species.

Sugar gliders are gliding possums that are endemic to Australia, New Guinea, and some parts of the Indonesian Islands. They earned their name for its predilection for sweet foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air using its parachute-like membrane, patadium. These sweet-tooth animals live in tree hollows during the day which is covered by twigs, are nocturnal and arboreal species. The three new species are now called the sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps), and Kreft's glider (Petaurus notatus) from the southern, savanna glider (Petaurus ariel) from the northern Australian territory. The research, which was a decade in the making, was published in the Zoological Journal of Linnean Society.