Fun facts about Sugar Gliders

Hi everyone, it's Alvin. I am a Sugar Glider and I live with my brothers & sisters, Theodore, Simon, Laverne & Shirley & my adopted humans at Majical Miniatures. Most humans see a cuddly good-looking Sugar Glider, like myself, at the pet store and decide they have to have one, not realizing how much time and money goes into caring for us. They soon find out it is not easy living with a nocturnal "party" animal that enjoys the nightlife! The majority of us end up like me, at a rescue facility within a year. Don't get me wrong, I love it here at Majical Miniatures, I get all the mealworms I can eat, live in a spacious high-rise cage with plenty of room to fly and host rockin' parties, even my human friends can stop in for a visit. That reminds me, party in my cage tonight 2am BYOM (bring your own mealworms). In the meantime, if you are considering adding a Sugar Glider to your family, check out these fun facts about us.

Did you know? Sugar Glider facts:

• Sugar gliders get their name from their love of sweet foods and a membrane that allows them to glide
• They are native to Australia, Tasmania, Indonesia & Papua-New Guinea
• They are marsupials which means they raise their young in a pouch on the mom's belly
• An adult Sugar Glider will weigh between 4 to 5 oz, grow to 13" long and can live up to 15 years
• Sugar Gliders are Nocturnal which means they sleep during the day and are active at night
• Even though they are fur covered, their ears are hairless. Their ears move independent of each other in constant motion picking up sounds
• Their tail is used for stability and balance and direction of flight when gliding
• A membrane of skin runs from the wrist to the ankle giving the Sugar Glider the ability to glide
• They make loud barking sounds like a small dog
• A Sugar glider is a social animal which means they do better in pairs but normally live in groups of up to seven adults and their young
• Their diet is made up of insects, small vertebrates, tree sap from Eucalyptus, Acacia and Gum trees, nectar, pollen and fruits
• Sugar Gliders can peel the bark of a tree with their teeth! Imagine what a bite would feel like!
• Much like a ferret or skunk they have glands on their body to emit scent and mark with their urine

• They are one of the most commonly traded wild animals in the illegal pet trade, where animals are plucked directly from their natural habitats

To learn more about Majical Miniatures and how you can help visit:
www.majicalminiatures.org
For more info on Sugar Gliders visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_glider
http://sugarglidercare.org/

Manatee County Ag Sheriff help rescue family of non-native deer.

At the end of last year, we had heard of a group of fallow deer that had been hand raised and released over off Jim Davis Rd in Parrish. One of our volunteers had voiced some concern over them but they tended to wander the neighborhood sticking to a schedule only they knew.

In Feb/March of this year we started getting calls about “our deer” being loose. Of course, they were not our deer and we had yet to see them. Then I got a call one day that there was a white deer in the road by the golf course that would not get off the road. So I went down to check it out and see what was going on. At first, they were nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes, the three of them crossed the road into a wooded area off Golf Course Rd. I spent the next 20-30 min just watching them as they meandered around browsing, checking me out, and playing with a cushion that was discarded by the side of the road. Then they ambled off following the creek.

These deer were fallow deer, which are not native to FL, and it is illegal to release them here. There was a white buck and two does (1 white and 1 brown). While they were doing ok on their own they were prime targets for predators, including humans since they were so ‘tame’ and they posed a problem to our native white tail deer as far as interbreeding. Fish & Wildlife agreed to let us try to catch and move them otherwise they were going to be destroyed. Now came the big adventure.

The white doe, by far the tamest, had no problem going into a baited trailer and being moved to the sanctuary the first week of April. The other two proved to be more of a challenge. The buck tended to push the other doe off and when he finally came close to going into the trailer, he bolted catching his foot in a fence and injuring his leg. After this, the two would not return to the trailer so that plan was scrapped. They were rarely seen for the next couple of weeks and we continued to get reports of him limping. Then the last week of April they started showing up again at a neighbors’ house on Jim Davis Rd regularly in the early am and late pm.

Due to the skittish nature of these two, we had to enlist the help of the Ag Sheriffs. We knew we were going to have to have them darted to be able to transport them. Mike Ference and Justin Yero came out along with their Sergeant Tom Frank to check the situation out. They agreed to come out on April 29^th to see if we could get this taken care of.

On that Friday Mike Ference (on his day off!), Justin Yero, Kevin Karava and Sergeant Tom Frank showed up bright and early. The deer on the other hand were late. They ended up playing around down by Gamble Creek Farms. So down the road the guys went. Now darting is not an easy task especially in a wooded area but with lots of patience, determination, sweat and blood (the guys from the brush - not the deer) mission accomplished! After having to bring them out of the woods through the brush and up the creek bed, they helped us get them to the sanctuary and settled. To these guys I am forever thankful. Without their help, this never would have been accomplished and the deer would have paid with their lives. All of them truly went above and beyond. Because of their efforts they deer are alive, they no longer pose a danger to motorist or people (a ‘tame’ buck in rut is nothing to mess with), and they are no longer a threat to our white tail population. While most of the neighbors will miss them, the deer are the ones that are the losers in this– they lost their short-lived freedom. They are happy to be back together though and enjoying a small piece of what they had.

Buck, Blanc and Babe want to send a special thank you to Paige Babor, Brenda Bagley, Dave and Joyce Leonard, Randy Bates, Gamble Creek Farms and of course Mike Ference, Justin Yero, Kevin Karava, Tom Frank. WE thank you as well.

Jan Doherty

Majical Miniatures

If you would like to sponsor Buck, Blanc & Babe please visit: MajicalMiniatures