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.

树冠层是一种在能量消耗层面极具挑战性的通行环境。除了需应对柔韧的植被外，树冠间隙若迫使动物采取延长路径的绕行方式，亦会带来不菲的能量成本。树栖猿类演化出多样的运动策略，其中包括跨间隙移动方式。它们在特定场景下选择何种运动策略，或受该行为的能量成本影响，而能量成本又取决于当下环境的具体细节，同时与自身体型相关。对树栖猿类的能量代谢进行测量并非易事，因此我们在该领域的认知较为有限。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在摆荡、跳跃与垂直攀爬时的能量消耗。其中垂直攀爬的能量消耗显著更高，这表明当以能量经济性为首要考量时，树栖猿类会优先选择高度变化更小的行进路径。对于运动员而言，摆荡与跳跃哪种方式更具能量经济性，取决于树木刚度、跨距、所需摆荡次数以及自身体重之间的交互影响。对既往种间相关性的更新分析表明，垂直攀爬的相对成本是否随灵长类物种体型保持恒定，会因攀爬场景的具体细节而变得复杂。