Literature review

We found that all publications targeting sugar gliders used a honey-based bait and 81.5% of those also used a honey-water lure. Most often, the choice of bait was made a priori without justification, with only 3% of studies providing citations for baiting methods. Sugar gliders consumed animal protein baits (including sardines, dog food and non-toxic foxoff meat) in one study targeting brush-tailed phascogales (Fairbridge et al. , 2003). There were no comparisons of bait types and trapping efficacy across the literature. Meta-analyses showed that variations of honey-bait types do not explain heterogeneity in trapping success (Q =1030.72, df = 10,p <0.0001, I2 = 98.01%,T2 =0.41) or capture rates (Q =260.94, df = 14, p <0.0001, I2 = 95.85%,T2 =0.87). There was a negative effect of year, indicating a slight decrease in trapping success and capture rates over the last four decades (1983-2022). Variation in trapping success across studies was best explained by habitat connectivity, trap nights and year and variation in capture rates was best explained by habitat connectivity and trap height (full results in Supporting Information).