Cute little critters glide into hearts and homes

On Christmas wish lists this year, Santa Claus will see requests for the usual assortment of gifts: Tonka trucks, Barbie dolls, video games, anything Spider-Man and, of course, Petaurus Breviceps.

To save Old Saint Nick from dusting off his scientific dictionary (since we know he's a reader), that's the fancy way the animal kingdom describes the newest pet phenom known as "sugar gliders."

Though some mistakenly call them flying squirrels, they are not direct relatives of Bullwinkle's buddy, Rocky. Rather, sugar gliders are tiny tree-dwelling marsupials — from the same pouched order as kangaroos and koalas — that originate from the region of Australia and New Zealand.

(A time-saving tip for Santa: A kiosk at the Fashion Place Mall sells them for $250 apiece, Kris Kringle discount not included, and if they run out, their breeding ranch is in Wichita Falls, Texas. They can even be found at home-improvement shows and trade fairs.)

The soaring opossums, which live between 10-15 years, are often called "pocket pals" because they like to sleep in pockets. (Front pockets are advised to avoid sitting on and squishing them.)

Full grown, they weigh about 6 ounces and are similar in size as a hamster with a long, fluffy tail, small, sharp claws that help the animals hook themselves to surfaces, and a membrane from wrist to ankle that enables them to glide up to 250 feet from tree to tree. Or from person to person — they just have to glide downward.

"Gliders will land on your face. It's like a landing pad," said Sandra Martinez, who owns WestWind Critters, a local sugar-glider supplier currently in the mall. "I tell kids when they land on your face, they like you most."

But be forewarned, the nocturnal creatures might be landing there to steal your dinner. Martinez says sugar gliders will swipe food out of your mouth, which she describes as being one of the things that makes them "irreplaceable" as pets. They also jump on you, cuddle up to you and sit on your shoulder and talk to you. (They bark kind of like a Chihuahua.)

"They're kind of cute," said Gar Kovacs, co-owner of Pet Planet in Riverton. "They fit in your pocket."

The mini-marsupials are gaining in popularity as pets. WestWind Critters has sold 160 this holiday season. They were completely out until a shipment of 40 arrived to the always crowded kiosk Monday afternoon.