Mammals
Possums & Gliders
Gliders
Sighting 4468195

Petaurus notatus

9 Krefft’s Glider, formerly Sugar Glider at Turner, ACT

Petaurus notatus at Turner, ACT - 1 Feb 2023 11:15 PM
Petaurus notatus at Turner, ACT - 1 Feb 2023 11:15 PM
Petaurus notatus at Turner, ACT - 1 Feb 2023 11:15 PM
Petaurus notatus at Turner, ACT - 1 Feb 2023 11:15 PM
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Identification history

Petaurus notatus 3 Feb 2023 BelindaWilson
Petaurus notatus 3 Feb 2023 JenEd

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User's notes

This little friend dropped in from our ceiling cavity for a brief visit on Wednesday evening. We've heard them scuttling around, coming and going, for some time.

7 comments

BelindaWilson wrote:
   3 Feb 2023
Hi Jen, what happened to the little one after these photos were taken? Did you release it back into the cavity, or take it to a vet or wildlife carer? It looks quite young (possibly dependent on its mother), judging by its looks and the fact it didn't seem to be biting you when you handled it.
JenEd wrote:
   3 Feb 2023
We put it back in the ceiling -- do you have a better suggestion? My kids would love to make friends with them. I wondered if it was young -- it was not terribly stressed about being handled, sharp claws, not long enough to leave a scratch, and never tried to bite. I'm just discussing with another friend whether it would be P. norfolcensis or P. notatus -- can you tell?
BelindaWilson wrote:
   3 Feb 2023
You made the right call - the best place for it is always with its family. While it is a nice thought to try to make friends with them, it's important that they maintain their wild behaviours and not become too friendly/dependent on humans (they can become aggressive if they feel entitled to food, for instance).

As for the ID, squirrel gliders have more pointed faces, very bushy tails (do you have a photo of the animal's tail?), high contrast in their fur markings, and are almost double the size of Krefft's/sugar gliders (here is a neat guide from WIRES: http://www.wiresnr.org/squirrelglider.html).
JenEd wrote:
   3 Feb 2023
I can't tell. I think he was smaller than this one: http://www.wiresnr.org/images/squirrelgliderkaty.jpg - so possibly quite young. We think the tip of his tail was black, but don't have a photo.
DonFletcher wrote:
   3 Feb 2023
Hi Jen and Belinda, Many people have been dead keen to find Squirrel Gliders in the ACT or region, for many decades. I do not think they are here any longer, if indeed they ever were. There are no confirmed records. The two old specimen-backed records from Queanbeyan, held at Aust Museum in Sydney, seem to have been freighted to Queanbeyan, rather than collected there. We need an animal in the hand, carefully measured in the way that defines the difference between the species, before spotlight sightings will have much credibility. However, the examples of Long Nosed Bandicoot, and Rosenberg's Goanna show that species can be present but undetected (LNB) or unrecognised (RG) for decades, even in the ACT which is full of biologist employing organisations.
JenEd wrote:
   8 Aug 2023
@DonFletcher , @BelindaWilson , We saw a glider down from the ceiling cavity into our cupboard again this morning - possibly the one we captured in Feb now grown up. We hadn't heard them moving around for quite some time until a couple of days ago, so I'm wondering if they might migrate. If you know someone studying them, we'd be happy to put in an infrared camera or something to track their movements. If there is a good reason to move them, our ceiling cavity would be an easy place to put a trap.
DonFletcher wrote:
   8 Aug 2023
Hi @JenEd Belinda is more likely than me to know of any ongoing research. You might get a lot of joy from your own wildlife camera, monitoring their comings and goings. The best 'off-the-shelf' camera, the type used by most researchers, is the Reconyx HPX2 which costs around $880, but actually about $1,000 including two sets of 12 rechargeable AA batteries, a 12 unit smart charger and two 16 Gb SD cards. A cheaper option which is still fairly OK for wildlife survey is the Browning Patriot at around $340, or actually maybe $500 with two sets of 8 rechargeable batteries, a 10 position smart charger and two 64Gb cards (or bigger if you might leave the camera for more than a week). Then there are literally hundreds of models of lower priced options.

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