Squirrel Glider - Nswfmpa.org

3.1.3 Distinguishing FeaturesThe Squirrel Glider and Sugar Glider (Petuarus breviceps) are very similar in appearance.They differ in that the Squirrel glider has longer narrower ears and a bushier tail and the Squirrelglider is almost twice the size. The two gliders can be reliably told apart as the squirrel glider haslarger incisors.The Squirrel glider is also similar in appearance the endangered Mahogany glider (Petuarusgracilis). Until 1993 the Mahogany glider was thought to be a sub species of the Squirrel glider.The Squirrel glider is smaller than the Mahogany glider (head/body 218-265mm; tail 300-380mm; weight 255-410g). The Squirrel glider also lacks the brown or honey tones of theunderparts of the Mahogany glider. (Oxford University Press 2001).3.2 Distribution and HabitatThe Squirrel Glider is restricted to Australia. It is sparsely distributed along the east coast andimmediate inland districts from western Victoria to north Queensland. The squirrel gliderinhabits dry sclerophyll forest and woodland and is generally absent from rainforests and closedforests (Menkhorst ed. al.1988, in Threatened species information NPWS. The species is foundas far back as the Grampians in Victoria and the Pilliga and the Coonabarabran areas. TheSquirrel glider prefers dry sclerophyll forests and dry woodlands in south eastern Australia andwet sclerophyll forests in Northern New South Wales and Queensland. In Victoria the Squirrelglider lives in the dry forest woodlands and riverine plains, but are absent from the coastalforests.There is a gap in the distribution of the Squirrel glider where the Mahogany glider occurs.The reason for is not known though it is suspected that it may be due to the Mahogany gliderbeing larger in size (Lindenmayer, D. Ed. 2002.).Figure 1. Distribution of the Squirrel glider (Left) and distribution of Mahogany glider(Right). From Lindenmayer, D. Ed. 2002)9