National Geographic: Heroes of the High Frontier Page #3

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gathering here for a great event,

unique to Southeast Asia's

rainforests.

They are coming for a feast.

In the course of a just a few weeks,

most of the trees here will bear

fruit,

laying out a banquet in the sky.

The seeds of the tallest trees...

...helicopter down a hundred feet

into the canopy below.

From there, it's another hundred feet

down into the dark.

Orangutans make an endless

pilgrimage

through these tree tops in search of

food.

They travel alone except for females

and their young.

They maintain detailed mental maps

of huge tracks of forest,

memorizing the location of each

favorite fruit tree

and the shortest routes between them.

While still a baby at mother's breast,

an orang begins a lifetime

of learning

just where and when to find

ripe fruit.

When a wave of mass fruiting hits

a valley,

it gives the orangs something even

more precious than food

- a chance to socialize with

their own kind.

Infants get a rare chance to play with

other youngsters their own age.

Long thought to be loners by nature,

we now know that orangs enjoy

each other's company

- when there's enough food to

go around.

Even the big males are welcome to

join the party.

Gibbons, too, relish the sweet,

abundant fruit.

Orangs would usually threaten a

gibbon who dared to eat

in the same fruiting tree,

but with plenty of food of around,

the little ape can eat his fill

in peace.

Then he swings away with

effortless grace,

hundreds of feet above the ground.

Orangs are too heavy for

such acrobatics.

Instead, they descend to the under

story,

where they put their weight to

good use.

Still 50 feet above the forest floor,

they sway back and forth on the

pliable saplings,

working their way between the taller

fruiting trees.

Moving among the trees

presents special challenges

for all canopy creatures...

...especially those without limbs.

A snake requires exquisite balance.

This one is quite comfortable

with life out on a limb.

The flying snake glides

from tree to tree.

It flattens its body into a ribbon-

shape, swimming through the air.

It's not easy to escape such a

talented predator.

Ribs raise wings,

as a warning at first.

Flying dragons soar through the open

colonnades of a Malaysian forest,

just one leap ahead of

their predators.

These are the gothic cathedrals

of the canopy,

but there are places that resemble the

tangled webs of jungle lore

- the lush forests of Costa Rica.

Here, epiphytes, the plants growing

on the trees,

may weigh more than the foliage of

the trees themselves.

Woody vines called lianas knit

the canopy together

providing by-ways for all sorts of

creatures

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