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Photographs / Text by Tim Laman

"Little is known about the lives of most of the animals pictured in this story."

More than 30 different gliding species inhabit Borneo, Indonesia. Animals have a hard time finding food in a forest that is dominated by the infrequently blooming fruit found on giant dipterocarp trees making it necessary for the animals to cover a lot of area.

An array of extraordinary (a ribbon-flat tree snake), entertaining (a tree frog able to make 180-degree turns in midair), camouflaged (Kuhl's flying gecko) and most times terrifying (leaping lizards) have dealt with the challenge, and they do it without even touching the ground. After all, "what better way than to glide." By shifting their body weight or adjusting their tails and limbs in order to steer a controlled flight path through the canopy their gliding techniques make for coverage of big distances in little time. All the while, their magnificent display of gliding only begins to unlock the secrets of their adaptations for survival.
 
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