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The marsupials are part of the strangest animals on the planet, due to their forms and varieties can take by surprise even the most experienced animal connoisseurs, these animals seem to have been encapsulated in the past of animal history, today I present to you the Sugar glider. Come with me to know some characteristics of this incredible marsupial.
For being marsupial this in the family order of kangaroos, wombats, Tasmanian devils to name a few, is one of the smallest of this family order, its habitat is trees and is distributed between Australia, Tasmania, islands near Indonesia and New Guinea.
The most remarkable thing, at first sight, is its gray coat, abundant and soft with a variant of black stripe that crosses all its body just in the zone of the vertebral column, in addition it possesses black spots in its legs, back and face, has a length of 15 centimeters and has a furry tail with 15 centimeters which gives him enough stability in the trees standing out for being an excellent climber.
It has some folds that it uses to plan, very similar to the form of a paraglider, as its other cousins share certain characteristics like for example a period of very brief gestation accompanied by the slow development of the species. In addition, they have the typical bag to carry the baby.
In their natural state, they live in dense forests, preferring the trees, they are group animals being able to meet with up to 30 specimens, their activity begins in the night, which allows them to hunt infinity of insects and some small vertebrates, but not everything is to eat insects their name is not a coincidence, in addition, they feed off the sweet sap of trees like the Acacias and Eucalyptus.
In addition to eating a lot of candy, another of its most outstanding characteristics is that it can glide like a flying squirrel, they only have to climb up to the top of the trees to jump from there to other trees in search of food. They can glide up to 50 meters, their tail is a real rudder, also serves to have an excellent balance in the trees.
The Sugar glider are endowed with a thin membrane that scientists have called patagium, this adhered between their hind legs and front, also have opposable fingers that allow you to use to have greater directionality while gliding. They have 5 toes on their hind legs and at the same time have an opposable big toe, it is as if they were glued by default.
His ears are very large and do not stop moving like his eyes in addition to being very large to give greater vision at night, having a powerful radius of vision very wide compared to other species of marsupials.
Another curiosity of this animal is its ability to reproduce several calls with different shapes and tones, its sounds may resemble the bark of a dog or can change to the whistle of a bird, also have a powerful odor to communicate with other Sugar glider being very characteristic and unique in each specimen, the female has glands located in the genital area and its bag, are able to recognize any individual who have smelled previously.
And finally we can say that they are home to some species of nests very similar to those used by birds, this is very rare in other species.
Currently, the Sugar glider are under threat of extinction by poaching for the pet trade, they are also sacrificed because they are considered harmful to other species.
Thank you for reading
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