State agriculture inspectors said yesterday that a passenger may have tried to smuggle a marsupial from Las Vegas to Hawai'i after they found a pouch and a bag with food in the plane where the animal was captured.

Flight crews found the two items trashed in the lavatory of an Omni airlines charter plane in which a sugar glider was captured on Monday, said Janelle Saneishi, a spokeswoman for the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture.

Saneishi said the bag with animal food had its label ripped off.

Investigators are hoping passengers who were aboard Flight 108 will contact the department with more clues; no one has called yet.

No one in the plane claimed the 10-inch-long animal, though it appeared tame.

Passengers thought a monkey was running loose in the cabin before it was caught.

Sugar gliders are small possums native to Australia and New Guinea. They are prohibited in Hawai'i, even for zoos.

Sugar gliders feed on insects, nectar and the sap of eucalyptus and acacia trees, which include the native koa.

Sugar gliders also can damage trees by stripping off the bark and they may carry diseases.

The animal was turned over to the state Department of Agriculture, to be shipped out of state.

Saneishi said she didn't know when or where the animal may be sent.