In the natural world, it’s every creature for itself – so it helps to have some killer moves in their armories.
These ring-tailed lemurs, red-eyed tree frogs and even a domestic cat show exactly how to deal with an animal opponent.
The leaping lemurs, who live at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, enjoyed a friendly scrap after waking up from a nap.
After locking eyes, they both launched into high kicks as their tussle began.
They performed jumps, spins and tried to pin each other down during the aerial display before calling a truce and rejoining their troop.
Longleat keeper Dan Gray said: ‘It’s like one of those choreographed fight scenes in a martial arts movie, the only thing that’s lacking is the thwacking sound effects.
‘Lemurs are incredibly playful and can often be spotted leaping through the air and sparring with each other.
‘They are incredibly agile creatures and sometimes they even appear to be doing acrobatic stunts.
‘They really enjoy play fighting and jumping around, and although it looks incredibly impressive it is all bluster and they very rarely come to blows.’
Ring-tailed lemurs are renowned for being able to leap from tree to tree and use their long tails, which are about 4in longer than their bodies, for balance.
They aren’t the only creatures who can use their incredible jumping abilities to their advantage in a fight.
These two red-eyed tree frogs, photographed in Indonesia, showed how leapfrog is really done when they put their webbed feet up for a fight.
Even at full stretch as it reached out to bash its companion, one looked to be outdone by the other’s ability to jump to the skies.
A little closer to home, Misha, a blue British Shorthair cat, looked to be emulating the frog by stretching to her full height to try to catch a butterfly.
Her owner Kemal Selimovic, 47, captured the eight-year-old jumping eight inches off the ground in pursuit of the pretty tortoiseshell butterfly that was tantalisingly out of reach.
Mr Selimovic said: ‘Misha always likes to try to catch insects.
‘This time she made a leap and by pure luck the camera caught her wonderful expression of absolute concentration.
‘She tries to focus before the jump but all the while she is dancing to catch the insect.
‘Misha is our little girl but her teeth and claws are showing, letting us know that her instincts are intact.
‘Like most cat owners my partner and I are slightly silly about her and truly enjoy her and her captivating personality.
‘She rules the garden and we call her attempts to catch insects “Mission Impossibles” as she never gets lucky.’
Share or comment on this article: Longleaf Safari Park animal photos show spectacular displays of agility.
