Data from: Bridging the gap: parkour athletes provide new insights into locomotion energetics of arboreal apes

The tree canopy is an energetically challenging environment to traverse. Along with compliant vegetation, gaps in the canopy can prove energetically costly if they force a route-extending detour. Arboreal apes exhibit diverse locomotion strategies, including for gap crossing. Which one they employ in any given scenario may be influenced by the energy costs to do so, which are affected by the details of the immediate environment in combination with their body size. Measuring energetics of arboreal apes is not tractable; thus our knowledge in this area is limited. We devised a novel, custom-made experimental set-up to record the energy expenditure of parkour athletes tree-swaying, jumping and vertical climbing. The latter strategy was vastly more expensive, indicating that when energy economy is the focus arboreal apes will prioritize routes that limit height changes. Whether tree-swaying or jumping was most economical for the athletes depended upon interactions between tree stiffness, the distance to cross, number of tree-sways required and their own mass. Updated analysis of previous interspecific correlations suggests that whether the relative costs to vertical climb are size-invariant across primate species is complicated by details of the climbing context.树冠层（tree canopy）是一类极具能量消耗挑战的穿行环境。除了柔软易形变的植被外，树冠层中的空隙若迫使行进路线绕远，也会带来高昂的能量代价。树栖猿类（arboreal apes）具备多样的运动策略，其中也包括跨空隙运动。它们在特定场景下选用的策略类型，或受该行为的能量成本影响；而能量成本又会结合当下环境细节与自身体型共同决定。直接测量树栖猿类的能量代谢水平并不具备可行性，因此学界在该领域的认知仍较为有限。我们设计了一套全新的定制化实验装置，用于记录跑酷运动员（parkour athletes）在树体摆荡、跳跃与垂直攀爬过程中的能量消耗。其中垂直攀爬的能量成本极高，这表明当以能量节约为首要目标时，树栖猿类会优先选择能够减少高度变化的行进路线。对于运动员而言，树体摆荡与跳跃哪种方式更具能量经济性，取决于树木刚度、需跨越的距离、所需摆荡次数以及自身体重之间的交互作用。对既往种间相关性（interspecific correlations）的更新分析表明，灵长类物种间垂直攀爬的相对成本是否与体型无关，会因攀爬场景的细节差异而变得复杂。