A couple of friends of mine have been raising a Yellow belled glider that they got in when it was tiny. They grow to the size about as big as a large domestic cat. I have met Mickey(named because he looks like Mickey mouse with his big ears) and I have to admit he is very cute. He will be released back into the wild when he is fully grown.

Awww

what the flip is that??? how cute!

Mickey is a CUTEY!!

He is adorable.

Dare I say, that is not near enough photos for us.

Lol well I'm catching up with Geoff and Eliane tonight so I will make sure they continues to send me update photos as Mickey gets closer to release. If I had a big enough aviary he could have come to my place but alas I'm not that organized yet.

Awwww I love him!! He's so cute!!!

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Originally posted by Kazko

Dare I say, that is not near enough photos for us.

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I completely agree what a cutie!!!!!!!!!!

Awwwwww - look at that face!!!

I especially love that patch of black hair.

Very sweet!

How adorable! Looks like he is well on his way to being released! What time frame were the photos taken in?

Awww I love that picture of him in the pocket, thats funny.The last picture you can see the yellow. So cute.

He is sooooo cute.

I like him! He's still really small, isn't he? How do they glide if they get so big? I'd love to see them in person. Thanks, Jett!

He's ADORABLE!!

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Originally posted by Kazko

Dare I say, that is not near enough photos for us.

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MORE PICSMORE PICSMORE PICSMORE PICSMORE PICSMORE PICSMORE PICSMORE PICS

COME ON JETT! THOSE WERE JUST TEASERS OF THE LIL CUTIE PIE!!!

OMGosh, just adorable. I love the pics of the different animals in Australia.

I am especially crazy about the red eyed possums that I beleive Marz has as pets. They are just gorgeous.
Jett what are those & do you or friends have any of them? Marz was saying they are bigger and actually sweeter than gliders are.

All the critters I just go nuts are are there, maybe I need to move! LOL

Nice pic's Jett. I have a question. Do they get along with the normal size gliders there? Then second question, with being human raised will he do ok being let back into the wild, will he seek humans out for food?

AWWWWWW how cute. You say they are going to release him back into the wild when he's fully grown. But the little guy wouldn't know how to defend himelf becauase he is use to being babied by human ans he knows humans is not going to harm him but prey and other such animals he may not know how to really defend and fight them off. I raised a squirrel and when he was fully grown I turned him loose, but I keeped his cage out where he could come and go, and he would still come up to us and we could hold and play with him but he was use to us but several days of him being on his own I noticed another squirrel was bothering him and I thought they were playing but the more I paid attention the more I noticed that the other squirrel was hurting mine and he wasn't fighting back to defend himself because he didin't know no better. And before I got to him the other squirrel killed him. That broke my heart because if I hadn't just let him roam he would still be here with me today. I still have his brother in a cage and I refuse to do that to him. Even though he is more attach to my hubby than me.

I know what u mean, I raised two baby squirrels and let them go. One was very close to us he would come and go for months. As time passed so did his visits, till no more.

Awwww. He is really cute. Love the pocket pic too!

omg. that cure little face! i have never seen anything like that!

Awwwww! He is TOO cute!

WOW! That is about the cutest thing I've ever seen! Check out those claws though. EEK!

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Originally posted by alyanne

WOW! That is about the cutest thing I've ever seen! Check out those claws though. EEK!

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OOOO - Good point. Imagine a face hug with those!

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Originally posted by Keri
AWWWWWW how cute. You say they are going to release him back into the wild when he's fully grown. But the little guy wouldn't know how to defend himelf becauase he is use to being babied by human ans he knows humans is not going to harm him but prey and other such animals he may not know how to really defend and fight them off.

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Keri this is why wildlife carers here are very careful when they rear or care for wildlife. First of all any adult animnals are kept with minimal human contact (usually only one person) and you keep them away from dogs/cats and things like that. They don't want the animals to become reliant or trust humans/domestic animals as this could be dangerous when they are released. With babies, yes you do have to hand rear them but as they get older, you give them less and less attention, putting them with others of their own species, and offer them larger cages and put these cages further away from the people/noise etc.

It's called dehumanising so they learn not to be dependant on humans and eventually get that wariness of people, dogs, cats etc that is natural in a wild animal.

There are two types of releases here ..soft and hard. Soft release is opening the cage door, but still offering shelter and food for the animal to return if it isn't ready to be on it's own. Quite often this is done with single animals. Hard release which is usually done with two or more animals of the same species, back to area it came from or in an area where there are known groups of it's species. They will be released with their own nestbox and depending on the location, this can be monitored till everything is certain things are ok.

There are no certainities with any release but each animal has a chance to be living bsck in it's own environment.

I have just released three Wild Suagr Gliders. They were only in care for a short while but I believe that the Gliders are one of the most relisilient when they are released. I'm not sure if you have ever read any stories about gliders escaping in the U.S. but there was a story about Inspector Gadget who was missing for over three months before he was recaptured. They don't need as much food as we normally feed them to survive and will go into hybernation for a day or two to conserve energy when the food source is scarce, unlike the captive bred gliders. Where I have released my possums and gliders there is plenty of natural bush land with acacias for the gliders even a creek running through. Even though the fires went through close to the bush that I released them in, where there box is is lush bush land.

My friend Geoff who is raising Mickey said that for some reason he often walks upside down along the branches and rope.

I wonder if all of them do that. The coloring would make sense - looking up he'd be a dark patch like the rest of the leaves, and looking from above it'd be yellow-y brown like the leaves.