The sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel.^[8] They have very similar habits and appearance to the flying squirrel, despite not being closely related—an example of convergent evolution.^[9] The scientific name, Petaurus breviceps, translates from Latin as "short-headed rope-dancer", a reference to their canopy acrobatics.^[10]

The sugar glider is characterised by its pair of gliding membranes, known as patagia, which extend from its forelegs to its hindlegs.^[11] Gliding serves as an efficient means of reaching food and evading predators.^[8] The animal is covered in soft, pale grey to light brown fur which is countershaded, being lighter in colour on its underside.

The sugar glider, as strictly defined in a recent analysis, is only native to a small portion of southeastern Australia, corresponding to southern Queensland and most of New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range; the extended species group, including populations which may or may not belong to P. breviceps, occupies a larger range covering much of coastal eastern and northern Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands.^[4][5] Members of Petaurus are popular exotic pets; these pet animals are also frequently referred to as "sugar gliders", but recent research indicates, at least for American pets, that they are not P. breviceps but a closely related species, ultimately originating from a single source near Sorong in West Papua.^[12] This would possibly make them members of the Krefft's glider (P. notatus), but the taxonomy of Papuan Petaurus populations is still poorly resolved