The second objective is to explore the spatial relationships between the placement of the forelimbs at touchdown and the field of the substrate from which the mystacial vibrissae receive tactile information. Secure forelimb placement is crucial to locomotor stability for various reasons: forelimbs carry most of the body weight in the majority of mammals analyzed so far, they exert the main breaking impulse and they are assumed to play a dominant role in steering directional changes (e.g., Manter, 1938; Barclay,1953; Demes et al., 1994). By placing the hind foot directly intothe footprint left by the ipsilateral forelimb (“follow the leader”),many species use footfall sequences that enable the hindlimb to profit from using an area of substrate already tested for security by the forelimbs