Mahogany Glider
Encyclopedia
The mahogany glider is an endangered gliding possum
Petauridae
The family Petauridae includes 11 medium-sized possum species: four striped possums, the six species wrist-winged gliders in genus Petaurus, and Leadbeater's Possum which has only vestigal gliding membranes...


native to a small region of coastal Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

.

Appearance

A nocturnal arboreal marsupial
Marsupial
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...

, the mahogany glider closely resembles the sugar glider
Sugar Glider
The sugar glider is a small gliding possum originating from the marsupial family.The sugar glider is native to eastern and northern mainland Australia and is also native to New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.- Habitat :Sugar gliders can be found all throughout the northern and eastern parts of...

, the squirrel glider
Squirrel Glider
The Squirrel Glider is a nocturnal gliding possum, one of the wrist-winged gliders of the genus Petaurus.-Habitat:...

 and the yellow-bellied glider
Yellow-bellied Glider
The Yellow-bellied Glider is an arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum that lives in a narrow range of native eucalypt forests down eastern Australia, reaching from northern Queensland to Victoria.-Habitat:...

., but is noticeably larger than any of its relatives (26.5 cm long and 410g) and long tail (34–40 cm). The species gets its common name from its mahogany-brown belly and the similar colour of its patagium
Patagium
*In bats, the skin forming the surface of the wing. It is an extension of the skin of the abdomen that runs to the tip of each digit, uniting the forelimb with the body.*The patagium of a bat has four distinct parts:...

, or gliding membrane. Unlike related gliders, it has a golden mendulla section, rather than grey. The tail is covered in short hair, and is black on the underside.

These gliders are sexually dimorphic, with the males being larger than the females, although the latter usually have a longer tail in proportion to their body. In terms of their body length, females are marginally smaller, measuring 23 to 27 cm (9.1 to 10.6 ) compared with the male body length of 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11 ), but they have a slightly longer tail, measuring 35 to 41 cm (13.8 to 16.1 ) compared with 34 to 41 cm (13.4 to 16.1 ) in males. However, despite their similar apparent size, the females, at 310 to 454 g (10.9 to 16 ), are much more lightly built than the males, which weigh between 345 and 500 g (12.2 and 17.6 ).

Distribution and habitat

The mahogany glider is restricted to a very small area, between Ollera Creek south of Ingham
Ingham, Queensland
Ingham is a town in the Great Green Way region of North Queensland, Australia. The town was founded in 1864, gazetted a shire in 1879, and is the service centre for many sugarcane plantations, pioneered in the 1870s by William Ingham, for whom the town is named...

 and Tully
Tully, Queensland
Tully is a small town in Queensland, Australia, adjacent to the Bruce Highway approximately south of Cairns by road and north of Townsville. At the 2006 census, Tully had a population of 2,457....

 in North Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The habitat consists mainly of open forest with many different flowering plants that provide year round food.

Reproduction

The mahogany glider has a long breeding season with births starting April and ending in October. Litters consist of one or two young, and are usually born once a year, although a mother can give birth to a second litter if the first is lost before leaving the pouch. The young are weaned
Weaning
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant, either human or animal, to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk...

 at four to five months, and reach sexual maturity at twelve to eighteen months. They have been recorded to live to about five or six years of age.

Each pair of adults shares some of their dens with offspring from the previous breeding season. These dens are marked and defended from other mahogany gliders. The pairs are usually monogamous, although extra-pair matings have been observed.

Behaviour and diet

The mahogany glider eats Eucalypt
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...

 sap and gum, acacia
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

 sap and seeds, grass tree
Xanthorrhoea
Xanthorrhoea is a genus of flowering plants native to Australia and a member of family Xanthorrhoeaceae, being the only member of subfamily Xanthorrhoeoideae. The Xanthorrhoeaceae are monocots, part of order Asparagales. There are 28 species and five subspecies of Xanthorrhoea.-Description:All are...

 sap, pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

, nectar, insects, mistletoe, honeydew, wattle exudates,and at least twenty different tree and shrub species.

It is nocturnal, with adults living together in monogamous
Monogamy
Monogamy /Gr. μονός+γάμος - one+marriage/ a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse at any one time. In current usage monogamy often refers to having one sexual partner irrespective of marriage or reproduction...

 pairs. In ideal conditions, the combined home range of a pair of animals averages around 23 hectares (56.8 acre), although this may be smaller in areas of fragmented habitat. Animals travel a considerable distance each night, with 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) being typical; they are generally more mobile in the wet season than in the height of the dry season. During the day, mahogany gliders den in high trees, with poplar gums and forest red gum
Eucalyptus tereticornis
Eucalyptus tereticornis is a species of tree native to eastern Australia.It has a great many common names, of which Forest Red Gum is perhaps the most widely known...

s being especially favoured. Although they are socially monogamous, they do not usually share dens, with each individual having from three to nine dens within its home range.

In January the time spent outside of the den for travelling and feeding is around 40%, while in September the amount was 77%. This activity was spent mostly at night ranging in a continuous period of 8–10 hours outside.

Mahogany gliders have been reported to make deep, nasal grunting sounds when travelling at night, and a similar, but much louder and more rapid, alarm call, which has been described as "reminiscent of a lawnmower". Predators include scrub python, owls, and, in some instances, feral cats.

Conservation

Mahogany gliders are considered a threatened species due to loss of habitat, with over 80% having been cleared for growing sugar cane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

, pine trees, and banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

s, or for rearing cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

. The mahogany glider's existence has been further endangered by the devastation to the region by Cyclone Yasi on 3 February 2011.

The mahogany glider was lost to science for over a hundred years, from its first description in 1883, until it was rediscovered in 1989. In 2000, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, or QPWS, is a sub-section of the Environmental Protection Agency within the Queensland government. Its primary concern is with the development and maintenance of national parks within Queensland.-External links:*...

 enacted a recovery program for the mahogany glider. The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland
Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland
The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland is a Queensland based conservation organisation. The Society was founded in 1962 by Judith Wright, Brian Clouston, David Fleay and Kathleen McArthur...

also has a recovery program for the preservation of gliders, including the mahogany glider.
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