The Biak glider (''Petaurus biacensis'') is a species of

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

in the family Petauridae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Schouten Islands The Biak Islands (, also Schouten Islands or Geelvink Islands) are an island group of Southwest Papua province, eastern Indonesia in the Cenderawasih Bay (or Geelvink Bay) 50 km off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. Th ...

in the western region of Papua Province,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It was formerly considered to be a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of ''Petaurus breviceps'' ( sugar glider); there is still uncertainty regarding its status as a distinct species. The Biak glider ranges in length from and in weight from .

Distribution

Biak, Supiori and Owi isles.Wilson & Reeder's Mammal Species of the World: Taxonomic Browser :
Petaurus biacensis
''; Smithsonian Institution

References

External links

Taxonomic status
MSW - Current as of November 16, 2005 - Retrieved 07:58, 19 October 2012 (UTC) Gliding possums Marsupials of New Guinea Mammals of Indonesia Endemic fauna of the Biak–Numfoor rain forests Biak Schouten Islands Least concern biota of Oceania Mammals described in 1940 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{marsupial-stub