I’ve heard it said before that there are no squirrels in Australia. Well I was interested in searching this out to see what I could uncover, and I found our (sort of) squirrel of the day! Wikipedia calls this a Squirrel Glider, or Petaurus norfolcensis. So not technically a member of the squirrel family (Sciuridae), the Squirrel glider is actually a flying nocturnal possum!
Check me out, Buster! I can fly!
Looking for a picture of the live flying possum in the wild (aka Squirrel glider), I found some cute pictures but this one was the best:
Check out my fuzzy fruit!
Already excited by my discoveries of pseudo-squirrels in Australia, I was interested to see if there were any true members of the Sciuridae family living there. Then I happened upon a post from Scary Squirrel World, entitled SKWERLS DOWN UNDER. That’s where I learned about the Indian Palm Squirrel!
Aren’t my stripes beautiful?
According to a news story from the year 2000, the super cute Indian Palm Squirrel is sciuridae non grata around the South Perth Area where it resides after escaping from a zoo! They must be pretty terrifying – check out this quote: “Agriculture Western Australia protection officer Brian Clare said ‘They… scavenge for waste food and have been known to steal school childrens’ sandwiches.'”
A sandwich fit for a squirrel!
The Pensive Squirrel 
Great post. We live near a few feet from Merri Creek in Australia and we have very sweet possums visiting often. Apparently they are Brush Tailed Possums. We have sightings of Platapussys from time to time.
Speaking of sandwich stealers, the Emus are the worst. I have had not one but two sandwiches stolen right out of my hand by Emus sneaking up on me and coming at me from behind. They sneak their long necks over your shoulder and “wham” off runs your sandwich. I have witnesses. Fair Dinkum!
Got to look out for those Emus huh? LOL! Here in America Emu used to be the trendy “health-food” meat and Emu farms were popping up left and right. So I bet a few of them ended up in sandwiches themselves!
Flying possums….. oh my, I just may be able to work that in to a future comic I already have planned! 😉
Thanks for the educational post! I was unaware not only of the “flying possums”, but of there being any sciuridae in Australia…
I learned a lot – it’s awesome how you can start with a Google search and learn something completely new. Yea information age! =) Now I know those Palm squirrels aren’t native, but they’re there none-the-less! BTW can’t wait to see your version of a “flying possum”!
LOL, it won’t be in this week’s comic, but the one I have planned for the following week…