A sugar-glider drifts between some trees.

Size: An adult sugar-glider is approximately 11 inches long from its nose to the tip of his tail.

Habitat: The forests of Australia.

#90019 - Sugar-glider! (petaurus breviceps)

These nocturnal marsupials are playful, inquisitive and intelligent. Their name comes from their affinity for sweet things, like the sweet sap that leaks from wounds in trees.

Number of legs: 4

Physical appearance: In shape and size, sugar-gliders are very similar to the American flying squirrel. The fur is very soft, and grey in color, with a white belly and a black stripe from the nose, over the head and down the back. The last two inches or so of the tail is also black. The grey of the body meets the white of the belly right at the edge of the webbing between front and back legs, which creates a striking ripple effect at their sides when the webbing is not stretched taut. They also have smaller black stripes that run down each leg.

Diet: Sap, nectar, insects and baby birds.

Reproduction: Sugar-gliders, like other marsupials, have a very short gestation period -- about 16 days. The babies, usually 1 to 3 of them, are born tiny (0.19 grams) and hairless, and have to make their own way into the mother's pouch, where they attach themselves to a nipple. They stay there for about two months. At around two months they begin to emerge from the pouch a little at a time, taking several days to emerge fully. Once they are out of the pouch, the babies may hang under the mother's abdomen as she moves about, or they may stay curled in the nest with the male. Male sugar-gliders are very good fathers, and help with the care and feeding of the babies. The female's pouch opening is a vertical slit, about a half inch long, in the lower middle of her abdomen. The male's testicles are located in a furry little lump at that same spot on his belly, and the penis is farther back, at the base of the tail. An anatomical odditiy they share with opossums is the bifurcated penis - there are actually two shafts. Normally they are retracted, but they often show when the male is afraid or excited.The female's anatomy is also similarly divided.

Relationship with man: Sugar-gliders are often kept as pets, especially in the US, where they will die if not looked after properly.