One of the most familiar scenes in the Tarzan movies is Tarzan swinging through the jungle on vines. My friends and I were discussing this and came to the conclusion that there aren’t any vines in America strong enough to swing on, but maybe there are in Africa. Are any vines growing in trees strong enough to swing on? –ShonEncinas, via e-mail
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Vines first. Having consulted with George Angehr, who serves as tropical forest expert for the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board and moonlights as an ornithologist for the Smithsonian Institution in Panama, we can state the drawbacks of vines-as-jungle-bicycle as follows:
- Actually, a third thing might happen if you yank on a liana. As reported online and confirmed by Angehr, God’s own collection of bugs and other little uglies may rain down on you. On the plus side, bisect a liana with a machete and you may find it contains drinkable water.
Still, let’s concede one point to vine lovers. Orangutan researchers–and yes, I know orangutans live in southeast Asia, not Africa–speak of a phenomenon called “liana sway,” described as “a ‘Tarzan’-type movement in which the orangutan swings horizontally on one or more vertical lianas with increasing amplitude to reach the next support” (Thorpe and Crompton, “Locomotor Ecology of Wild Orangutans [etc],” American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2005). So to some extent apes can travel by vine–and if the infant Lord Greystoke had been orphaned in Borneo, maybe he’d have learned to do it too.
