Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Leaping Animals

If you want to talk about grace and beauty in leaping, I don't think anything can beat a lemur. Lemurs are prosimians (primitive primates) and are distantly related to apes and humans. They are not monkeys.

All 88 species of lemurs are found on the small island of Madagascar or the surrounding Comoros islands off the Southeast coast of Africa. They are arboreal, meaning they live in trees and bushes. Lemurs stick to a mostly herbivorous diet and the need to travel from treetop to treetop has made them incredibly skillful at leaping. Lemurs have adapted so well to this form of locomotion that even when grounded they do not walk, but leap along, involving their entire body in a ballet of bounding and balance.

Watch the clip below to see what I mean.

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