Inland Sugar Glider

About the Inland Sugar Glider

Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus) is a species of arboreal nocturnal gliding possum, a type of small marsupial. It is native to most of eastern mainland Australia and has been introduced to Tasmania. Populations of Petaurus from New Guinea and Indonesia previously classified under P. breviceps are also tentatively classified under P. notatus by the American Society of Mammalogists, but likely represent a complex of distinct species. As most captive gliders referred to as "sugar gliders" in at least the United States are thought to originate from West Papua, this likely makes them Krefft's gliders, at least tentatively.

It is closely allied with the sugar glider (P. breviceps), with which it was long taxonomically confused. A 2020 study partially clarified the taxonomy of the sugar glider and split it into three species: the savanna glider (P. ariel), the sugar glider (P. breviceps sensu stricto) and Krefft's glider (P. notatus). The large range throughout eastern Australia once attributed to the sugar glider is now thought to actually be that of Krefft's glider; under the new taxonomy, the sugar glider has a smaller range in the coastal forests of Queensland and New... Wikipedia →