There are many animals that have long tails, including: monkeys, giraffes and lizards. These animals use their tails for balance and to help them climb trees. Some animals with long tails also use their tails as weapons.
The purpose of this post is to offer an overview of animals with lengthy tails and the reasons for their long tails.
15 Animals With Long Tails
Let’s have a look at the following list of animals with long tails, which includes a wide range of species from all over the world.
- Howler Monkey
They have big, long tails that are five times their own body length and are prehensile in nature. As a result, their prehensile tails are utilized for picking fruit and nuts, as well as coiling around trees while trekking, climbing trees particularly the youngsters do so more frequently than the adults.
- Black Spider Monkey
They have elongated tails that measure 84 centimeters in length, whereas their whole body lengths are 70-80 cm. They have a muscular and tactile prehensile tail that is strong enough to support its entire body weight and enables them to hang from trees while foraging for food, drinking water, and so on.
- Angola Colobus
The long and thin tails of the Angola Colobus are black or white throughout their length, with a white tip. Its tail is utilized for balance while climbing trees and walking.
- Ring-Tailed Lemur
The Ring-Tailed Lemur has a long, thick tail with approximately 13 alternating black and white rings. It is non-prehensile and cannot grip, but it is primarily used for balance while climbing trees and displaying by waving them in the rival group’s face.
- Leopard Whipray
The leopard whipray’s name derives from the leopard-like markings on its body. A leopard whipray has a long, thin, needle-like tail that may reach 4 feet in length and has a barb at the end.
- Red kangaroo
The Red Kangaroo’s lengthy tail is about 42 inches (1.2 meters) long. When standing upright, its enormous tails are utilized as a tripod and are also used for balancing or propping while walking or leaping.
- Pangolin
Pangolins have scaly tails that are about 45 cm long and 15 scales on the edge of their tails. Depending on the subspecies, its tails may be partly prehensile or fully prehensile. Some Pangolin species have large tails, while others have thin ones.
- Giraffe
The giraffe has the largest tail, which measures 3.3 feet (1 m) in length. With sandy and brown regions that end with a long black tuft that is used to swat insects or fly swats.
The giraffe is a tall herbivore and is found in eastern Africa as well as southern Africa.
- Thresher Shark
The thresher shark is one-of-a-kind because of its huge upper caudal fin, which might reach lengths of up to 10 feet. The thresher shark swarms its prey before stunning and killing them by flicking its tail.
- Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia
They have extremely long tails, with males having tails that are about 100 cm. Their body is only 32 cm long, making ribbon-tailed astrapia birds with the longest tail feathering in comparison to their size.
- Long-Tailed Grass Lizard
This lizard has a body length of about 3 to 5 inches, but its tail may extend its overall length up to 12 inches. They are native to China, southeast Asia, and southern Russia, and use their tails for balance and weight distribution.
- Jesus Christ Lizard
The long tails and lengthy legs of these creatures allow them to run on the surface of water. Their long tails account for 75% of their overall body length, making a Jesus Christ lizard with a 70 cm tail.
- Woolly Monkey
The Yellow-tailed woolly monkey is another medium-sized primate of South America. They have long tails that are longer than the body and may support the whole animal’s weight. The name “Yellow-tailed woolly monkey” comes from a hairless region on the underside of their tail, which is golden brown in color.
- Binturong
They have a bushy, 70 cm long tail with a prehensile curl at the tip and thick root. Its tail is more muscular at the bottom and has a hint of the same hue as its body.
- Malabar giant squirrel
The tails of the Malabar giant squirrel are 45 cm long and have a reddish-maroon upper section, with a whitish color at the tip. The Malabar giant squirrel is a member of the genus Ratufa and family Sciuridae that can be found in India.