Prehensile tail

[1] Fully prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and eating food in the trees.

[1] Many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than in Africa and Southeast Asia.

It has been argued that animals with prehensile tails are more common in South America because the forest there is denser than in Africa or Southeast Asia.

South American rainforests also differ by having more lianas, as there are fewer large animals to eat them than in Africa and Asia; the presence of lianas may aid climbers but obstruct gliders.

Many mammals with prehensile tails will have a bare patch to aid gripping.