Sugar Glider Essay

1133 Words5 Pages
Endangered Species One of the endangered species that has a rank as “Least Concern (LC)” on the IUCN Red List or Red Data List which the headquarters is in the United Kingdom. I would like to describe and tell where its habitat and distribution is. The animal that I want to talk about has a small body structure, is an omnivorous animal, and has an arboreal gliding possum that belong to the marsupial infraclass. This animal is a native to eastern and northern at the mainland Australia and it is also a native to New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. Its scientific name is Petaurus breviceps and if we translate from this Latin word, it is called as “short-headed rope-dancer”, a reference to their canopy acrobatics. Its normal name or short name is called as sugar glider. They are named as sugar glider is due to their preference for sugary nectarous foods and has the ability to glide through the air, and much like a flying squirrel. Due to the convergent evolution, they have similar appearance and habits to the flying squirrel, but are not closely related. The sugar glider has a squirrel-like body with a long partially prehensile tail. The males are larger than the females and have bald patches on their head and stomach; their length from the nose to the tip of the tail is about 24 to 30 cm (12–13 inches, the body itself is approx. 5–6 inches). A sugar glider has a thick, soft fur coat that is usually blue-grey; some have been known to be yellow, tan, or albino. A black stripe is seen from its nose to midway of its back. Its belly, throat, and chest are cream in colour. As a nocturnal, its large eyes help to see at night, and its ears swivel to help locate prey in the dark. Besides, it has five digits on each foot and each having a claw, except for the opposable toe on the hindfeet. Also on the hindfeet, the second and third digits are partially syndactylous

More about Sugar Glider Essay

Open Document