Endangered
Mahogany glider
Petaurus gracilis
The mahogany glider is an endangered gliding possum native to a small region of coastal Queensland in Australia.
Appearance
A nocturnal arboreal marsupial, the mahogany glider closely resembles the sugar glider, the squirrel glider and the yellow-bellied glider, but is noticeably larger than any of its relatives (26.5 cm long and 410 g) and has a long tail (34–40 cm). The species gets its common name from its mahogany-brown belly and the similar colour of its patagium, or gliding membrane.
In terms of their body length, females are marginally smaller, measuring 23 to 27 centimetres (9.1 to 10.6 in) compared with the male body length of 23 to 28 centimetres (9.1 to 11.0 in), but they have a slightly longer tail, measuring 35 to 41 centimetres (14 to 16 in) compared with 34 to 41 centimetres (13 to 16 in) in males.
Range and habitat
The habitat consists mainly of open forest with many different flowering plants that provide year-round food. The mahogany glider is an endangered gliding possum native to a small region of coastal Queensland in Australia.
Scientists at James Cook University are researching the genetic health of the species and working with partners to determine whether the species is present on Hinchinbrook Island off the coast.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
It is nocturnal, with adults living together in monogamous pairs. The mahogany glider has a long breeding season with births starting April and ending in October.
Each pair of adults shares some of their dens with offspring from the previous breeding season.
In crisis
Mahogany gliders are listed as a threatened species. In 2000, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service enacted a recovery programme for the mahogany glider. The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland also had a recovery programme for the preservation of gliders, among them the mahogany glider.
The main threat to mahogany gliders is habitat loss due to clearing for development, forestry and agriculture. Over 80% of their habitat has been destroyed leaving pockets of isolated populations.
Mahogany glider is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Mahogany glider, Wikidata item Q135842. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
