Suspensory locomotion

Suspensory behavior
Suspensory feeding in a black and white vari

Suspensory locomotion is a form of locomotion for primates and sloths in trees. The term is made up of the Latin words suspendere = "hang up", locus = "place, place" and motio = "movement" and specifically describes the fact that the body of the animal is hanging on arms or a prehensile tail , located below or between the branches. Various individual movements are used, such as shackling from branch to branch, so-called brachiation , climbing and slipping. This makes it possible for larger species to distribute their weight over several smaller branches instead of balancing on them.

Behavior is also referred to as “suspensory” if, for example, a person is in a hanging position while eating . The behaviors described can be observed in various primates with the exception of the sloth, for example in the lemur genera Varis and Sifakas , in spider monkeys and in small and large apes such as gibbons and orangutans .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ JG Fleagle: Primate Adaptation and Evolution . 2nd Edition. Academic Press, 1998, ISBN 0-12-260341-9 , pp. 596 . Google eBook. Retrieved March 7, 2016 .