Glide angle in the genus Petaurus and a review of gliding in mammals

ABSTRACT The gliding angle of the Mahogany Glider Petaurus gracilis and the Sugar Glider Petaurus breviceps was determined from field studies by measuring the height of launch and landing of glides and the distance travelled. This showed no significant difference between these two species in glide ratio, which averaged 1.91 and 1.82 m distance per 1 m loss in altitude, respectively, nor in glide angle which averaged 28.26° and 29.69° for the Mahogany Glider and Sugar Glider, respectively. Significant differences were found between them for height of launch (19.75 and 11.96 m, respectively), height of landing (4.48 and 1.95 m, respectively), diameter at breast height of landing tree (44.12 and 23.22 cm, respectively), and glide distance (29.71 and 20.42 m, respectively). An examination of the ratio of interorbital width to maximum skull width of gliding and nongliding possums was measured from museum skulls to examine whether gliders have eyes wider apart, to allow triangulation of distance in preparation for gliding. Gliding possums showed a trend toward having a larger interorbital width than nongliding possums, although there appear to be several factors acting on the interorbital width. Museum study skins of all gliding marsupials were measured to determine the relationship between patagium surface area and body mass which showed a clear relationship ( r 2 = 0.9688). A comparison of gliding behaviour, patagium, development of limbs, tail morphology and mass was also made between gliding marsupials and other gliding mammals.