Throughout their lives, animals must be able to move through their environment in order to accomplish tasks such as catching prey and avoiding predators. Due to the complex nature of their habitats, animals are often required to perform multiple modes of locomotion, such as running, jumping, swimming, and climbing. The performance and kinematics of these modes may be affected by variables such as (1) ontogenetic changes as the animal grows (2) different strategies within the same mode of locomotion, and (3) substrate changes.
