Krefft's Glider

Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus) is a small, nocturnal, arboreal marsupial that glides between trees on a membrane stretched between its limbs. It is native to most of eastern mainland Australia and has been introduced to Tasmania, and populations from New Guinea and parts of Indonesia are tentatively placed in the same species until they are better studied. It was long confused with the sugar glider, and a 2020 study split the old sugar glider into three species, the savanna glider, the sugar glider in the strict sense, and Krefft's glider, whose range proved to be the large inland and eastern Australian one once credited to the sugar glider. It is distinguished by a more clearly defined stripe down the middle of the back, a more attenuated tail with a white tip, and longer fur at the tail base. It lives in rainforest, wet or dry sclerophyll forest and acacia scrub, preferring eucalypt and acacia habitat with dense canopy. In Tasmania it is a predator of the nests of the swift parrot, and it is widely kept as a pet in the United States.