With the increasing conservation issues of Gliding species in Australia, it was noticed that there was limited information available about their care and management. As a response to this the Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales, Prof. Michael Archer, created the Gliders @ UNSW Research Team.

The research team is headed by postgraduate researcher, Adrian Di Qual. He is responsible for all decisions on research directions, managing the team's resources (both monetary and human) and publishing research findings. You can contact him via our contact page or email him directly at gliders (at) unsw.edu.au.



The scope of the Gliders @ UNSW Research Team is very broad, with three over-arching goals. These are that we aim to inform and educate:

• current Glider owners;
• people thinking of getting Gliders; and
• legislative bodies that manage captive and wild Glider populations.

To achieve this we research many problems, including those related to:

• Captive behaviours;
• Diets;
• Reproduction;
• Distribution;
• Population abundance and distribution;
• Maintenance requirements; and
• Suitability as pets.

One of our earliest pieces of research was to map where Sugar Gliders are found around the world, both in captivity and the wild. Currently this research is still incomplete, although our preliminary results suggest that there are upwards of 100,000 Sugar Gliders in North America kept as pets, whilst other countries such as Japan and Great Britain also have extant captive population's. This is summarised in Figure 1 below.




If you own Sugar Gliders and would like us to include your part of the world on the map, please go to our contact page and tell us where you are from. We always welcome feedback from Sugar Glider owners from around the world.