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] 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.

[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.

[13] The genus Petaurus is believed to have originated in New Guinea during the mid Miocene epoch, approximately 18 to 24 million years ago.

[15] Further studies have found significant genetic variation within populations traditionally classified in P. breviceps, sufficient to warrant splitting the species into multiple.

[note 5] In 2020, a landmark study suggested that P. breviceps actually comprised three cryptic species: the Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus), found throughout most of eastern Australia and introduced to Tasmania, the savanna glider (Petaurus ariel), native to northern Australia, and a more narrowly defined P. breviceps, restricted to a small section of coastal forest in southern Queensland and most of New South Wales.

[4][5][16] P. breviceps and P. notatus are estimated to have diverged ~1 million years ago, and may have originated from long term geographic isolation.

[15] This, as well as other climactic and geographic factors, may have isolated the ancestors of P. breviceps to refugia on the eastern, coastal side of the Great Dividing Range.

[18] Like all arboreal, nocturnal marsupials, sugar gliders are active at night, and they shelter during the day in tree hollows lined with leafy twigs.

Males have four scent glands, located on the forehead, chest, and two paracloacal (associated with, but not part of the cloaca, which is the common opening for the intestinal, urinal and genital tracts) that are used for marking of group members and territory.

These opposable toes are clawless, and bend such that they can touch all the other digits, like a human thumb, allowing it to firmly grasp branches.

[26] Sugar gliders can tolerate ambient air temperatures of up to 40 °C (104 °F) through behavioural strategies such as licking their coat and exposing the wet area, as well as drinking small quantities of water.

[35] With low energy and heat production, it is important for the sugar glider to peak its body mass by fat content in the autumn (May/June) in order to survive the following cold season.

[33][34] The use of torpor is most frequent during winter, likely in response to low ambient temperature, rainfall, and seasonal fluctuation in food sources.

[31] Sugar gliders are seasonally adaptive omnivores with a wide variety of foods in their diet, and mainly forage in the lower layers of the forest canopy.

[29] In summer they are primarily insectivorous, and in the winter when insects (and other arthropods) are scarce, they are mostly exudativorous (feeding on acacia gum, eucalyptus sap, manna,[b] honeydew or lerp).

[41] To obtain sap or gum from plants, sugar gliders will strip the bark off trees or open bore holes with their teeth to access stored liquid.

They eat many other foods when available, such as nectar, acacia seeds, bird eggs, pollen, fungi and native fruits.

[47] Joeys have a continuous arch of cartilage in their shoulder girdle which disappears soon after birth; this supports the forelimbs, assisting the climb into the pouch.

[20] Unlike animals that move along the ground, the sugar glider and other gliding species produce fewer, but heavier, offspring per litter.

[20] They engage in social grooming, which in addition to improving hygiene and health, helps bond the colony and establish group identity.

These co-dominant pairs are more related to each other than to subordinates within the group; and share food, nests, mates, and responsibility for scent marking of community members and territories.

[51] Territory and members of the group are marked with saliva and a scent produced by separate glands on the forehead and chest of male gliders.

[54] Under the prior taxonomy, the sugar glider was not considered endangered, and its conservation rank was "Least Concern (LC)" on the IUCN Red List.

[55] However, despite the loss of natural habitat in Australia over the last 200 years, it is adaptable and capable of living in small patches of remnant bush, particularly if it does not have to cross large expanses of cleared land to reach them.

Sugar gliders may persist in areas that have undergone mild-moderate selective logging, as long as three to five hollow bearing trees are retained per hectare.

[56] Although not currently threatened by habitat loss, the ability of sugar gliders to forage and avoid predators successfully may be decreased in areas of high light pollution.

[57] Conservation in Australia is enacted at the federal, state and local levels, where sugar gliders are protected as a native species.

[65] Iron storage disease (hemochromatosis) is another dietary problem that has been reported in captive gliders and can lead to fatal complications if not diagnosed and treated early.