quote:
Originally posted by viciousencounters
quote:
Originally posted by Candy
You are describing color variations, not different BREEDS.
Most pet gliders in the US are all the same type of glider - Petaurus breviceps. There are several other types of gliders in Australia. Recently a different glider breed called Caramel Gliders has been imported from Indonesia to the US. These gliders are a bit larger that most pet gliders and cross breeding these with the Petaurus breviceps gliders has resulted in offspring that are sterile (cannot reproduce). Very few folks currently own Caramel Gliders.
You might look here for some photos of various sugar glider colors:
http://www.thepetglider.com/joey-adoption-nursery.html
Yes, the Caramel Glider is actually the Biak Glider or Petaurus biacensis which is a different species than the Sugar Glider or Petaurus breviceps. Thanks for saying that Candy, I swear people were trying to convince others they were one in the same.
I made a color thread the other day:
http://www.sugarglider.com/glidergossip/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=49870
Biak gliders are actually quite small (av 84-87g) and tend to be almost melanistic . Very little study has been done but it is believed they are indeed a subspecies of petaurus breviceps now - not a completely different species.
Information on Biak gliders on the internet is very rare and I had to buy books specific to that region to get more detailed information and an actual illustration of the Biak glider.
There is a group in Australia heading over to the PNG/Irian Jaya and surrounding islands to do studies on the marsupials there so hopefully more information will become available in the future.