A marsupial that glides between trees in eastern Australian forests.
A skin membrane extends from the fifth finger to the ankle. Its long bushy tail helps control balance and direction while gliding.
The sugar glider was long treated as one species across a broad area of eastern and northern Australia. Cremona and colleagues compared genetic evidence with physical traits from historical and recent specimen collections. Their analysis separated the former broad Petaurus breviceps group into three species: P. breviceps, P. notatus, and P. ariel.
The sugar glider and P. notatus are close relatives with only subtle physical differences. P. ariel, by contrast, was placed closest to P. norfolcensis and P. gracilis. Revising these boundaries gives conservation work a clearer basis for considering each species on its own, rather than treating several lineages as one widespread animal.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern (LC) · Global (Petaurus breviceps)
The 2016 IUCN global assessment listed the sugar glider as Least Concern (LC). In 2021, a taxonomic study divided the former broad sugar-glider group into three species. The American Society of Mammalogists’ Mammal Diversity Database currently also lists Petaurus breviceps as Least Concern.