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Greater glider - SCHOINOBATES VOLANS
Possibly Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Greater": This glider is larger than most, and thus called "greater."
Location: Eastern coastal Australia.
Habitat: Arboreal. Eucalypt forests.
Description: This is a large glider with prominent ears and a tail longer than the rest of its body. A lateral membrane from wrist to ankle enable the greater glider to float on the currents of air. Its fur is long and silky, usually black, gray, or white on the back, and white or cream on the belly. Its tail is naked on the underpart of the tip. Its head and body stretch between 12"to 16" in length, and it weighs about 2.6 lbs.
Behavior: The largest of all five species of marsupial gliders, this species is solitary and lives high in the forest trees, where at night, unlike other gliders, it feeds exclusively on the tender leaves, shoots, and blossoms of certain eucalyptus trees. It is most closely related to the ringtail possum of similar feeding habits. The greater glider can travel long distances on the air currents. One such glider was observed to cover 590 yards in six successive glides among trees spaced 70 to 120 feet apart. During the day the animal shelters in a hollow trunk or branch, sometimes adding a nest of bark or leaves. Greater gliders are believed to live up to 15 years in the wild.
Reproduction: A single young is born to the females from April to August each year. It leaves the pouch in about fifteen weeks, and is independent by thirty weeks.
Go to the Marsupials Page, to get a general discussion of these animals.
Or go to the Pygmy Glider, or the Sugar Glider to study another glider.
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