Tree dwelling, or arboreal, animals are particularly well adapted to spending most or all of their time in trees. They range from tiny invertebrates to huge orangutans. At the medium to large end of the size spectrum, special physical adaptations aid locomotion up and through the trees, such as prehensile tails, specially adapted claws and loose joints for easy swinging.
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Singing apes
India's only apes, Assam's Hoolock gibbons grace the forest canopy.
India's only apes, Assam's Hoolock gibbons grace the forest canopy.
King of the swingers
Parallels between a gibbon's abilities and those of humans.
Parallels between a gibbon's abilities and those of humans.
High swingers
Chimpanzees make tree-climbing look effortless.
Chimpanzees make tree-climbing look effortless.
Dancing sifaka
Tree-dwelling sifakas move to life on the level.
Tree-dwelling sifakas move to life on the level.
Tree kangaroos
The life of a tree kangaroos takes place up in the forest canopy.
Kangaroos live in New Guinea but here they live up in the forest canopy. As there are no monkeys or squirrels, the entire canopy of leaves is theirs for the taking. Tree kangaroo babies stay with their mothers for up to two years before they live alone.
Malayan colugo
Brown-throated sloth
Pygmy three-toed sloth
Three-toed sloths
Red panda
Spectacled bear
Doria's Tree-Kangaroo
Koala
Matschie's tree-kangaroo
Yellow-bellied glider
Agile gibbon
Aye-aye
Bald uakari
Barbary macaque
Black-crested gibbon
Bonobo
Bornean orangutan
Chimpanzee
Common woolly monkey
Crowned lemur
Dwarf and mouse lemurs
Fork-marked lemurs
François' langur
Golden langur
Golden snub-nosed monkey
Grey mouse lemur
Indri
Kipunji
Lar gibbon
Madame Berthe's mouse lemur
Phayre's leaf monkey
Pied tamarin
Red ruffed lemur
Ring-tailed lemur
Siamang
Sifakas
Silky sifaka
Slow lorises
Sumatran orangutan
Tarsiers
Tufted capuchin
Verreaux's sifaka
Western red colobus
Yunnan snub-nosed monkey
Bushy-tailed squirrels
Dormouse
Grey squirrel
Red squirrelArboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In every habitat in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may only scale trees occasionally, while others are exclusively arboreal. These habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving through them, leading to a variety of anatomical, behavioral and ecological consequences. Furthermore, many of these same principles may be applied to climbing without trees, such as on rock piles or mountains.
The earliest known tetrapod with specializations that adapted it for climbing trees, was Suminia, a synapsid of the late Permian, about 260 million years ago.
Some invertebrate animals are exclusively arboreal in habitat, for example, see tree snail.
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