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Animals that glide produce aerodynamic forces that enable transit through the air in both arboreal and aquatic environments. The relative ease of gliding compared with flapping flight has led to a large diversity of taxa that have evolved some degree of flight capability. Glide paths are curved, reflecting the changing forces on the animal as it progresses through its aerial trajectory. These changing forces can be under control of the glider, which uses specific aspects of anatomy to modulate lift, drag, and rotational moments on the body. However, gliders share no single anatomical or behavioral feature, and some species are unspecialized for gliding, producing aerodynamic forces using posture and orientation alone. Animals use gliding in a broad range of ecological roles, suggesting that multiple performance metrics are relevant for consideration, but we are only beginning to understand how gliders produce and control their flight from takeoff to landing. In this review, we focus on the physical aspects of how glide trajectories are produced, and additionally discuss the range of morphologies and postures that are used to control aerial movements across the broad diversity of animal gliders. Key words: animal gliders, biomechanics, gliding flight, trajectory. Les animaux qui planent produisent des forces aerodynamiques qui permettent le deplacement dans les airs dans des milieux tant arboricoles qu'aquatiques. La facilite relative du vol plane par rapport au vol battu a mene a une grande diversite de taxons ayant developpe une certaine capacite de voler. Les trajectoires de vol plane sont courbees, refletant les forces changeantes qui agissent sur l'animal au fil de sa trajectoire aerienne. Ces forces changeantes peuvent etre controlees par l'animal planeur, qui utilise differents aspects de son anatomie pour modifier la portance, la resistance et les moments de rotation sur le corps. Les planeurs n'ont toutefois en commun aucune caracteristique anatomique ou comportementale unique, et certaines especes non specialisees pour le vol plane ne font appel qu'a la posture et l'orientation pour produire des forces aerodynamiques. Si les animaux utilisent le vol plane dans un vaste eventail de roles ecologiques, ce qui donne a penser que de nombreux parametres de performance doivent etre pris en consideration, la comprehension de la production et du controle du vol du decollage a l'atterrissage par les animaux planeurs n'en est qu'a ses debuts. La presente synthese est axee sur les aspects physiques de la production des trajectoires de vol plane et aborde l'eventail des morphologies et postures utilisees pour controler les deplacements aeriens chez une grande variete d'animaux planeurs. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: animaux planeurs, biomecanique, vol plane, trajectoire., Introduction Gliding is a fluid-based form of locomotion in which the animal moves horizontally without power, with the energy for movement provided by the potential energy of vertical position. In [...]

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