Many primates are natural acrobats, like the tree-hopping gibbon, the swinging orangutan, and even some humans (hello, Cirque du Soleil!)

But the animal kingdom is full of unsung aerialists that perform amazing airborne feats—sometimes with no feets at all.

Many rays in the Mobula genus, which dwell in tropical oceans, have graceful movements. Manta rays are particularly famous for their underwater ballets, which tourists can witness in Hawaii.

The fish may have "a lemon shark chasing after them," notes George Burgess, an ichthyologist at the Florida Natural History Museum, but they likely leap a lot for practice—the more adept they get at leaping, the more likely they’ll escape future predators.

It could also be that "females are more impressed