Powerful arboreal mammals. Any ideas?

Question

Hi. I need to do a poster presentation on the limb morphology of arboreal mammals. I intend on focusing on a mammal known for being powerful aswell as one reknowned for its speed. Any ideas what I could choose to represent power? I have chosen the Gibbon for speed. I would like it if the two creatures were not similar in their limb adaptations. Thank you

Answer 1

If you don't want another primate i.e. orang utan, then here are some other suggestions:

1. Leopard - although it hunts on the ground, it drags its prey up trees and is thus a pretty powerful climber.

2. Clouded leopard which pounces from trees onto its prey.

3. Malayan sun bear, the most arboreal of bears, feeds on fruit and leaves gathered from the trees.

4. Fossa, a Madagascan predator which hunts in the trees. It looks like a feline but belongs to the Viverridae a tropical carnivore group.

Hope one of those is of interest.

Answer 2

The three toed Sloth is also arboreal but is entirely the opposite of your requirements being extremely slow in all things.

Answer 3

try the orangutan

Equipped with very long, powerful arms and hook-shaped hands and feet, these apes climb and swing from tree to tree with ease. They reach from one tree to the next with their long arms, grasping the next branch with long hands or feet, and swing their bodies across the gap. If a baby following its mother reaches a gap between trees that is too wide for it to navigate, its mother makes a living bridge for the baby to scamper across.]

plus they are the largest of all arboreal animals.

Answer 4

how about the spider monkey