It is very similar to the squirrel glider but about half the weight.   Sugar gliders can interbreed with squirrel gliders.

There are many documented instances where sugar gliders have used nestboxes.  We have only recently had the opportunity to work with them.  Five boxes to the design illustrated below were installed in February 2000 at two sites known to have sugar gliders.  They were checked 33 days later.  At one site, one box contained 2 gliders while the other contained a rudimentary glider nest.  At the other site, one box contained 5-6 gliders, a second 2 gliders and the third box contained ants.  By any measure, this is an amazing take-up rate, but we have found that squirrel gliders also readily take to boxes.

One reason that these boxes are so popular may be that the entrance is positioned at the rear of the box, between the box and the trunk.   The mounting that we use causes the box to sit away from the trunk, so a rear entrance works well.  The original reason for this was to minimise competition from birds (for squirrel gliders) and it has been hugely successful in achieving that, although with this box the entrance would be too small for most birds.

Where both sugar and squirrel gliders occur in the one area, the latter will tend to monopolise the boxes.  In these situations the entrance should be reduced to about 25mm diameter.

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