It looks like this small creature is playing a game, right? But when a baby ring-tailed lemur wraps its tail around or gives it a tug, it"s actually working on crucial skills. The infants spend their early weeks hanging tight to their mom, first clinging to her belly and later to her back. As they grow, they separate from their mom, and tail-chasing becomes part of how they learn balance, coordination and group play. These primates use their long tails for communication as well. Raised like flags during group movement, the tails help them stick together in open terrain. Loud, rhythmic calls, scent markings and "stink fights" between males add to the social drama.
Ring-tailed lemur
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Boxing Day
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Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island, Chile
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Rio Negro
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Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany
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Apple trees in spring, Germany
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The Three Musketeers Falls at Iguazú Falls, Argentina
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Happy New Year!
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Taking the long view
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The Monastery of Roussanou, Greece
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Step back in time...
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Twinkle twinkle, little bugs
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Summer solstice
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Connecting the dots
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Last Night of the Proms
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World Art Day
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Italica, an old Roman city in Santiponce, Andalusia, Spain
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Vineyards above the Moselle River, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
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Christmas Eve
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Guy Fawkes Night
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Like paint on a canvas
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Avalanche Lake Trail at Adirondack High Peaks, New York, United States
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Andean cocks-of-the-rock, Ecuador
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Where fire and water meet
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South Stack Lighthouse, Holyhead, Wales
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Sea lion in a kelp forest, Baja California, Mexico
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Independence Day of the Argentine Republic
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A young jaguar on a riverbank, Pantanal, Brazil
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Beech trees and anemone wildflowers, Jutland, Denmark
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Misty mountain hop
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So nice, they made it twice