Editing Sugar glider (section)

===Socialisation===
Sugar gliders are highly social animals. They live in family groups or [[Colony (biology)|colonies]] consisting of up to seven adults, plus the current season's young. Up to four age classes may exist within each group, although some sugar gliders are solitary, not belonging to a group.<ref name=suckling1 /> They engage in [[social grooming]], which in addition to improving hygiene and health, helps bond the colony and establish group identity.

Within social communities, there are two codominant males who suppress subordinate males, but show no aggression towards each other. 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.<ref name=Klettenheimer1>{{cite journal|last1=Klettenheimer|first1=B|last2=Temple-Smith|first2=P|last3=Sofrondis|first3=G|title=Father and son sugar gliders: more than a genetic coalition?|journal=Journal of Zoology|date=1997|volume=242|issue=4|pages=741–750|doi=10.1111/j.1469-7998.1997.tb05823.x}}</ref>

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. Intruders who lack the appropriate scent marking are expelled violently.<ref name="dpiwtas"/> Rank is established through scent marking; and fighting does not occur within groups, but does occur when communities come into contact with each other.<ref name=smith(73) /> Within the colony, no fighting typically takes place beyond threatening behaviour.<ref>Pasatta, J. (1999). [http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Petaurus_breviceps/ "Petaurus breviceps" (On-line)], Animal Diversity Web. Accessed 10 November 2012</ref> Each colony defends a territory of about {{convert|1|hectare|acre}} where eucalyptus trees provide a [[staple food]] source.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Sugar gliders are one of the few species of [[mammal]]s that exhibit [[Paternal care|male parental care]].<ref name=Goldingay(2010)>{{cite journal|last1=Goldingay|first1=R. L.|title=Direct male parental care observed in wild sugar gliders|journal=Australian Mammalogy|date=2010|volume=32|issue=2|pages=177–178|doi=10.1071/AM10009}}</ref> The oldest codominant male in a social community shows a high level of parental care, as he is the probable father of any offspring due to his social status.
This paternal care evolved in sugar gliders as young are more likely to survive when [[parental investment]] is provided by both parents.<ref name=Goldingay(2010) /> In the sugar glider, biparental care allows one adult to huddle with the young and prevent [[hypothermia]] while the other parent is out foraging, as young sugar gliders aren't able to [[Thermoregulation|thermoregulate]] until they are 100 days old (3.5 months).<ref name=Goldingay(2010) />

Communication in sugar gliders is achieved through vocalisations, visual signals and complex chemical odours.<ref name=smith(73) /> Chemical odours account for a large part of communication in sugar gliders, similar to many other nocturnal animals. Odours may be used to mark territory, convey health status of an individual, and mark rank of community members. Gliders produce a number of vocalisations including barking and hissing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Dan H. |date=20 May 2011 |title=Hedgehogs and Sugar Gliders: Respiratory Anatomy, Physiology, and Disease |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvex.2011.03.006 |journal=Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=267-85, vi|doi=10.1016/j.cvex.2011.03.006 |pmid=21601815 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>