Web Glider (Rainbow Glider)
Scientific name: Webpetaurus breviceps
Common name: Color Glider
Place of origin: Shaanxi and Gansu in China, eastern Qinghai, northern Sichuan
Habits: chiefly bred in captivity and kept in households. Wild web gliders mostly live around high-voltage power lines and optical-fiber communications stations. They are nocturnal animals, resting by day and coming out to forage at night.
Food: the outer skin of high-voltage cables, optical-fiber sheathing, network cables, RJ-45 plugs, and the plastic coating of ordinary wires.
Among marsupials, the web glider is an exceptionally lovable animal. Its body is covered in a layer of soft fur. Males bear eight stripes running down the back from left to right along the spine, in orange-white, orange, green-white, blue, blue-white, green, brown-white, and brown. Females instead bear green-white, green, orange-white, blue, blue-white, orange, brown-white, and brown stripes. Their ears are thin and pointed, their eyes large and round, their bodies light and dainty, and their appearance highly appealing. Web gliders enjoy human contact and in recent years have become very popular in domestic and foreign pet markets.
In 2039, during a bio-network animal experiment at a biological institute of the Fourth Military Medical University, a group of Australian sugar gliders was introduced in preparation for improving a genetically modified experimental rabbit, using rabbits as small mobile outdoor wireless-network base stations. By accident, the first living web glider was produced, though at that time it did not yet have the colored stripes on its back. That first specimen survived only two days and died of starvation. After repeated experimentation, it was discovered that web gliders are highly sensitive to the smell of plastics, rubber, and other nonrenewable materials, and also performed very well in wireless-network access. The connection between the colored stripes on their backs and twisted-pair cable color codes, however, remains unclear. Some have said that it is related to an easter egg left in their chromosomes by the biologist who cultivated them. In the end, a new kind of animal was produced, easy to raise and feeding mainly on plastic waste. It became a primary life-form for eliminating industrial and nonrenewable refuse, as well as a new favorite among pet enthusiasts and biological modem users.
Like other animals in the glider family, web gliders have a thin membrane developed between their limbs, allowing them to glide short distances between buildings and utility poles. Before gliding, a web glider first fixes its eyes on the distance, scents the air, strikes a preparatory pose, and then leaps. When it is not gliding, the membrane contracts and hangs down along the sides of the body. The fingers and toes of web gliders are long and slender, with sharp claws that are useful both for climbing and for cutting through tough plastic coating.
Web gliders are nocturnal omnivores, and dusk is the best time to feed them. In the natural environment they prefer odorless foods such as plastic sheeting and foam plastic, though they also eat small amounts of cat grass and nuts. Insects are essential for supplementing their own electrical charge. Under artificial care, in addition to commercial nondegradable products, one may appropriately provide flowers, grasses, and insects they enjoy as supplementary food sources. Live feeding is strictly forbidden, however, as it easily leads to death.
Cages for web gliders are chiefly of the pillar-box type so that they have enough height. It is recommended that large quantities of foam plastic be spread across the floor. When cold waves arrive, the bottom may be lined with a small blanket, and the cage may also be placed on top of a computer tower for warmth, though care must be taken lest the web glider damage the machine’s wiring.
Female web gliders have a brood pouch at the position of the navel. The young are born in a premature state and crawl into the pouch on their own, where they suckle and gradually grow. Web-glider milk is green and has a pungent smell.
The lifespan of a web glider is between twenty and twenty-five years. Mature males and females may mate once or twice a year. Pregnancy lasts about four weeks, and each litter may contain thirteen young. At birth the young are extremely tiny, blind, and hairless. After thirty days they develop eyes. Only after seventy days do they begin to leave the pouch, and at around one hundred days they can be fully weaned and feed themselves.
In recent years, with the sharp increase in the number of web gliders being raised, animal-protection organizations have launched repeated protests over several cases of large factories breeding web gliders on an excessive scale and abusing them, leading to a number of related lawsuits.
Appendix: Recommended food for web gliders
Daily intake for a single web glider:
1 teaspoon of plastic pieces no larger than 1 cm
2 orchid stems (about 5 cm long)
1/2 teaspoon ant protein
3 RJ-45 plugs or 1 small plastic bag
[TRI Animal Diet Manual, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University]