The nocturnal Australian marsupial that glides with a membrane and is popular as an exotic pet is the sugar glider. This small, tree-dwelling possum has a skin membrane called a patagium stretching from each foreleg to the corresponding hind leg.
By spreading these membranes, a sugar glider can glide between trees rather than truly fly. Gliding helps it reach sap, nectar, and fruit while reducing time spent on the forest floor, where predators such as snakes, quolls, owls, and feral cats may be a danger. Its name refers both to its preference for sugary foods and its aerial movement.
Sugar gliders are marsupials, so females raise their tiny, underdeveloped young in a pouch. They are often confused with flying squirrels, but the two are only superficially alike: flying squirrels are placental rodents, whereas sugar gliders are Australian marsupials. A further taxonomic complication is that many animals sold as “sugar gliders” in the United States may actually be closely related Krefft’s gliders.