#gliders

The scientific name of this species is Acrobates pygmaeus (literally "pygmy acrobat") but it's commonly known as the feathertail glider, the pygmy glider, or the flying mouse.

This is the smallest gliding mammal in the world, as its head and body have a combined length of just 6.5-8cm, and its tail measures another 7-8cm long. The tail is fringed on each side with a row of long, stiff hairs that give it a feather-like appearance -- a feature that is not found in any other mammal. This feather-shaped tail acts as a rudder, allowing the tiny marsupial to steer and brake as it glides.

Feathertail gliders struggle to stay warm in harsh conditions, and they must enter a state known as torpor in order to preserve their energy, as this article describes:

A fascinating feature of these tiny mammals is that because they are so small, they have trouble staying warm when it is cold or when there is a food shortage; like the Sugar glider, they enter a state known as torpor.

This means that for short periods, their breathing slows down, and the animal becomes unresponsive; the body temperature drops almost to that of its surroundings. This state is not to be mistaken for hibernation, which is for much longer periods and is not known to occur in marsupials.

This article also adds:

Groups of A. pygmaeus have been observed in practically any available enclosed space, from hollow tree trunks to telephone interchange boxes to bird nests or possum dreys. They form spherical nests (dreys) of vegatation, usually eucalypt leaves, bark and tree-fern fiber. They have been found in groups of up to 20 individuals, but these are not considered stable associations. It is believed that communication between mother and young is through a number of high-frequency sounds and marking with urine.

Feathertail gliders are found only in mainland Australia.

Sources & More Info:

Moonlit Sanctuary: Narrow-Toed Feathertail Gliders

Australian Museum: The Feathertail Glider

Animal Diversity Web: Acrobates pygmaeus

Mammalian Species: A. pygmaeus

Wildlife Information, Rescue, and Education Service: The Feathertail Glider

Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland: Feathertail Gliders

That’s the beauty of it: we don’t know them all! We’re constantly discovering new species! Granted, some of these discoveries weren’t completely unknown to science and were only misidentified as a different animal, but they’re still pretty cool nonetheless. Here are some mammals that were discovered in the past few years:

The Popa langur (Trachypithecus popa), first described in 2020.

The northern greater glider (Petauroides minor) and the central greater glider (Petauroides armillatus), upgraded from subspecies of the southern greater glider (Petauroides volans), to their own species in 2020.

The Ramari’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon eueu), described from a single beached specimen in 2021!

The striking Halloween colored Nimba myotis bat (Myotis nimbaensis), described in 2021.

The southern maned sloth (Bradypus crinitus), first described in 2022.

The Benin tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax interfluvialis), first described in 2022.

The eastern Mindanao gymnure (Podogymnura intermedia) and the Kitanglad gymnure (podogymnura minima), first described this year, in January 2023.

The Paralympics start Today!

I wanted to celebrate by continuing Australia's tradition of using (definitely not) furry characters to represent our athletes lol. Wheelchair basketball was my sport back when i was playing, so i have a soft spot for it, and Australia's women's team are The Gliders, so i went with a basketball playing sugar-glider character!

I had plans to do a few more characters for different para-sports before the Paralympics end but things have come up and I'm not sure I'll have the time for more, but I really want to!

On a little side note I thought about while drawing this, having a long tail (movable or not) would be a nightmare in both wheelchair basketball and rugby lol - you aren't supposed to hit people from behind but it does inevitably happen a lot, quite aggressively, and even tucking the tail underneath the frame wouldn't protect all of it in a collision.

Habitat destruction is the leading cause of species endangerment and extinction. It can take decades, if not centuries, for a habitat to return to a point where it supports a given species' needs. Normally in nature there are enough other areas of habitat to keep species going while the damaged place recovers. However, we've wrought so much extensive destruction on ecosystems worldwide--whether directly, or through the effects of climate change and pollution--that many wild beings are forced into tiny pockets of their former range, making them vulnerable to extinction.

Anything we can do to provide appropriate habitat gives a threatened species a chance to hang on. It requires knowing what that being needs, and coming up with creative solutions. In this case, understanding what conditions the greater glider requires to thrive helped scientists create artificial shelters for them in the wake of devastating wildfires that destroyed a third of their habitat.