Flying Squirrels Hit Wall Of Wildlife Regulations Pet Shop Owner Told To Get Rid Of Gliding Rodents

It looks harmless enough - sort of a cross between a mouse and a bat - but the “sugar glider” flying squirrel is a menace to Idaho.

That’s the verdict of Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game, which has ruled the animals illegal to own.

The decision leaves Dalton Gardens pet shop owner Cyndi Foti frowning. She now is the loving owner of $2,100 worth of illegal squirrels.

“I did everything I was supposed to do, and they’re burning me,” the owner of Critters ‘n’ Crafts pet shop said of state officials.

Foti said she bought six of the creatures from a Coeur d’Alene woman five months ago. She said she first checked with Fish and Game officials in Coeur d’Alene and Boise.

“They said it’s not a problem,” she said.

Foti planned to breed the sugar gliders and sell the offspring for $300 to $500 a piece.

Everything went well until two weeks ago, when rumors of a sugar glider ban caused Foti to phone Fish and Game again. She talked to Lloyd Oldenburg, Idaho’s gatekeeper for exotic pets.

Oldenburg checked into the matter, reading up on sugar gliders. He concluded that the animals are a threat to Idaho’s wildlife and told Foti to get rid of hers.

“As far as I’m concerned, because of their food habits, I don’t want them,” he said.

Oldenburg fears the tiny creatures would get loose, multiply, climb into bird nests and eat the eggs.

“I’m the bad guy, but I’m trying to protect the state of Idaho,” he said. “We already have too many exotic animals destroying birds.

“It’s a very difficult situation,” he said. “Very difficult.”

Oldenburg reviews applications to own wallabies, lions, reindeer, mountain lions, water buffalo, wild boars, tigers, even alligators.

“If it exists somewhere, somebody somewhere is going to exploit it for the pet business,” he said.

He has plenty of examples of once-cute pets that have turned into nightmares.

In Australia, transplanted jack rabbits are gobbling crops. In Colorado, exotic sheep are devouring vegetation that should be feeding native mountain sheep.

Thoughout the Inland Northwest, voracious starlings - introduced from England - feast at feedlots and granaries. They take over the nests of native birds.

In Idaho, fox squirrels also take over native bird nests, forcing out songbirds and protected species.

“Everyone says, ‘Oh, go to the park and feed the squirrels,”’ Oldenburg said. “(But) you go to the park and shoot the squirrels, and you’re protecting native wildlife.”

Foti argues that the sugar gliders, native to Australia, die at temperatures below 60 degrees. If one got loose, she said, it never would survive an Idaho winter.

But Oldenburg is skeptical. A North Idaho farmer recently phoned state officials about an odd-looking piglike animal nearby. It turned out to be a javelina, native to the American Southwest. It isn’t supposed to be able to survive a cold winter, but this one did.

Oldenburg declined to specify where the javelina was. It’s still on the loose. “We’ll get him,” he vowed.

Common flying squirrels are native to Idaho, Oldenburg said. But sugar gliders, despite their nickname, actually are closer to the possum family.

Sugar gliders are marsupials, raised in a mother’s pouch until about 3 months old. They grow to about 6 inches long with a soft 6-inch tail. In their native habitat, they live in tree hollows. They get their name from their tendency to lick sweet tree sap.

Thursday, one of the squirrels climbed up Foti’s shirt and perched on her shoulder. The animals like to sit in shirt pockets and peek out.

“They’re very, very peopleoriented,” she said.

They often make a soft barking noise, and when alarmed, they make a sound “like a miniature chain saw,” Foti said.

Sugar gliders’ most unusual trait, however, is their tendency to climb tall furniture and hurl themselves into the air with their arm flaps spread wide, gliding down to land on something - or someone. “Kind of like Spiderman,” said Foti.

Since the animals are legal in Washington, Foti said she has moved her sugar gliders to the home of a Spokane friend.

She says the brouhaha over the creatures is preposterous. She cannot bring the animals back into Idaho without an importation permit, which she’ll file for soon. But Oldenburg says he won’t approve it.

Foti also has turned to U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, a pet shop industry group and a local attorney for help.

But Oldenburg said he’s going to stand fast. “She’s trying to put political pressure on me. And now she’s using the media,” he said. “I’m trying to defend native wildlife in Idaho. That’s my job.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)