To exploit these opportunities, animals have evolved specialized features. The three-toed sloth, for example, could not spend its entire life hanging upside-down beneath the forest's branches without its hook-like feet. Styles of locomotion are the most prolific of rainforest adaptations. Except for birds, the only vertebrates capable of true flight are the bats. But frogs, snakes, lizards, and mammals have evolved membranes that enable them to glide from one place to another. Many primates have prehensile tails which function as another limb. The primates use their tails for rapid and agile passage through the branches.

Though the general characteristics of the jungle habitat are the same everywhere, the way in which its inhabitants have adapted to them varies from one continent to another. Many rainforest animals demonstrate parallel or "convergent" evolution: two unrelated species develop to the point where they are doing the same job, even though they occur in two distinct geographical regions. The monkeys of Africa and Southeast Asia do not have prehensile tails and as a result, they move by running along the upper surface of the branches, or by swinging beneath them.

Moving around among the thin branches of the tallest trees requires specialized structures and behaviors of treetop dwellers. The mesh of interwoven branches of the forest canopy is the home of animals who can cling to and grasp tree parts. Hands and feet are adapted as well as tails. 

		Birds	Hummingbird	Harpy Eagle
		Mammals	Gibbon   Orangutan    Howler Monkey    Canopy Mouse	Jaguar   Woolley Oppossum    Coati    Sloth
		Reptiles and Amphibians	Flying Snake    Dragon Lizard	Strawberry Frog    Boa
		Insects	Ant-Garden Ants    Leaf-Cutter Ants	Mosquito Larvae