leapers

Leapers is the plural form of leaper, used to describe any organism or entity that is capable of leaping or jumping. The term is not a formal taxonomic category and is applied in biology as well as in popular culture to indicate jumping behavior or a jumping-inspired motif.

In biology, leapers are organisms that use saltatorial locomotion. This includes many insects such as grasshoppers and fleas, and vertebrates such as frogs, jerboas, kangaroos, and certain lizards. Leaping often involves specialized hind limbs, elastic tendons, and joints that store and release energy to produce powerful jumps. Leaping can serve for locomotion, predator avoidance, prey capture, or territorial display, and some species use directionally controlled leaps to land on precise targets.

In fiction and media, "Leapers" is commonly used as a name for creatures, factions, or characters defined by their jumping ability. This usage appears across science fiction, fantasy, and video games, and it is typically chosen for evocative effect rather than scientific accuracy. The term can denote anything from alien species to heroic or menacing figures, depending on the work.

See also: Leaper; Saltation; Jumping locomotion.