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Fig. 2. Video stills of the squirrels in the three postures observed. (A) The
forelimbs being abducted prior to the hindlimbs leaving the substrate during
take-off, and how the take-off angle, 
, is calculated as the angle
between the branch and the major axis of the best-fitting ellipse to the
squirrel (excluding its tail). (B) Normal gliding flight, (C) landing from the
side and (D) a ventral view landing on the pole on the left. In C, the last
few frames of a landing sequence have been superimposed onto one image to
demonstrate the landing behaviour, although the penultimate frame had to be
omitted for clarity. In this short, 1 m jump, the squirrel initially pitches
upwards and flattens its body and tail against the direction of motion.
Immediately prior to landing, the head is tilted backwards while the limbs are
all pushed forwards with the tail simultaneously rotated back so that it is
parallel with the ground.
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