Life in 2.5D: Animal Movement in the Trees

The complex, interconnected, and non-contiguous nature of canopy environments present unique cognitive, locomotor, sensory challenges to their animal inhabitants. Animal movement through forest canopies is constrained; unlike most aquatic or aerial habitats, the three-dimensional space a not fully realized available animals within it. Determining how constraints arboreal habitats shape ecology evolution canopy-dwelling key understanding ecosystems. With emerging technologies, there now opportunity quantify map tree connectivity, embed fine-scale horizontal vertical position moving into these networks branching pathways. Integrating detailed multi-dimensional habitat structure data will enable us see world from perspective an animal. This synthesis shed light on fundamental aspects animals’ cognition ecology, including they navigate landscapes risk reward weigh energetic trade-offs, as well environment shapes spatial social dynamics.