Maintaining natural movement of animals that only live in the tropical rain canopy in South America is important for the overall health of the ecosystem. As development and resource extraction continues to encroach on remote areas of the Amazon Basin, the forest is becoming increasingly fragmented, thereby limiting where animals that cannot fly and only live in the tops of trees can go. To find a potential solution to this challenge, researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute convinced a development company to do an experiment. Researchers worked with company engineers to leave behind "natural canopy bridges" to leave standing trees with large branches to maintain connections between both sides of the forest. For the experiment to work, SCBI needed to demonstrate that animals living in the canopy were actually using the bridges to cross the open area below and reach the other side.