Hi folks,

I’m working on a large feature and I want to break the back of it over the weekend. So as a ittle bit diversion, I wanted to share with you two awesome videos that I took last weekend of gibbons moving with characteristic and incredible agility at Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens in Suffolk. Gibbons were one of the highlights of David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals, and I was utterly captivated by footage of them monkeyi… er.. apeing about in trees, swinging through the canopy at high speed. (There’s a second video and some commentary after the jump)

This style of movement, known as brachiating, is a gibbon trademark. It’s made possible by a physical innovation that among primates, is