Sweet success for stranded sugar glider
A sugar glider found clinging to a washing line on a fourth-floor balcony has been reunited with its owner. The exotic palm-sized animal, which is native to Australia, was found holding on to a towel hanging on a clothes line in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire.
The sugar glider was taken into the care of the Scottish SCPA’s Lanarkshire Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre before being reunited with its owner. Sugar gliders, which look like squirrels, can fly through the air, flinging themselves from tree to tree. Scottish SPCA animal rescue officer Amy Stirton said: “I’ve never come across a sugar glider in Scotland so this was very unusual. “Sugar gliders get their name from the fact their diet is high in sweet foods such as nectar and pollen.
“They can also glide the length of a football pitch in one go due to their tiny webbed wings.” Gillian Boyle, manager of the Scottish SPCA Lanarkshire Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre, added: “We were delighted to be able to reunite the owner with their sugar glider.”
In the wild, sugar gliders live in groups of 15 to 30 animals in the trees. They are nocturnal, sleeping during the day and hunting at night for insects and sucking the sweet sap from trees.
Sugar gliders live up to nine years in the wild. Feral animals, bushfires and land clearance for agriculture are threats, but they are not considered an endangered species.
They are becoming increasingly popular as exotic pets, animal experts claim, but they are banned from being kept as pets in some parts of Australia and the US.