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"Some sort of arboreal raptor, tree climber, trust me, you don't want that thing to come through!"


Home time period	Cretaceous period
Creature type	Arboreal Raptor
Deaths caused	One ARC soldier
Appearances	Episode 4.3 Episode 5.5

Tree Creepers are a humanoid-like species of arboreal Raptor from the Cretaceous period. They are around the size of a fully grown man, with a long prehensile tail for grabbing. Their bodies are designed for moving quickly through forested areas and grabbing hold of victims with the flexible and strong tail.

Facts

Tree Creepers rely mainly on their ability to camouflage themselves in the canopy and move quickly through forested areas when hunting prey. It appears that they quietly jump from tree to tree stalking their prey, then when they attack, they lower themselves down into the low branches of the tree and wrap their long prehensile tails around the prey to drag it up into the tree. It also appears that Tree Creepers can hunt prey from on cliffs as well as in trees, as one stalked Matt and Emily from on a cliff.

Tree Creepers appear to range in size from six to ten feet, and they stand much like an ape; using their arms to support their body weight. Tree Creepers can apparently also communicate, as when one sent out a call from on a theatre roof, another one that was in the theatre quickly abandoned what it was doing and searched for a way up onto the roof in response. (Episode 4.3)

In Primeval

Episode 4.3

During their journeys through the Anomalies, the Time Tribe arrived in a hill range in the Cretaceous, inhabited by Tree Creepers. While there, the Tribe were forced to capture, kill and cook Tree Creepers for food. Two Tree Creepers came through an Anomaly to a theatre in 2011 and avoided being seen by the ARC team.

In the Cretaceous hill range, Matt Anderson and Emily Merchant were stalked by a Tree Creeper, which dragged Emily up into a tree before releasing her and retreating when Emily stabbed it in the tail. After Matt returned to the locked Anomaly with Emily, a Tree Creeper stalked them. When the Anomaly was unlocked and Matt retreated back through with Emily, the Tree Creeper followed them through. However, it was forced back through the Anomaly by EMD shots.

One of the two Tree Creepers that had already come through the Anomaly made its way up onto the theatre's roof, while the other remained in the theatre and killed an ARC soldier. the latter Tree Creeper came across and nearly attacked Hilary Becker, but when the Tree Creeper on the roof called for backup, the other Tree Creeper was distracted and abandoned Becker to find a way onto the roof.

The Tree Creeper in the theatre retreated up into the rafters in the theatre ceiling, avoiding Abby Maitland and tripping her up with its tail at one point. However, Abby lowered a stage light the Tree Creeper was perched on to the same level as her, then tricked it into jumping into another stage light. The Tree Creeper then fell down onto the stage below, where Becker shot it with an EMD. It's unknown whether the Tree Creeper died from the EMD shots, or was returned through the Anomaly.

Meanwhile, when Matt and Emily found the other Tree Creeper climbing along the outside of an office block, Matt used his EMD to send an electric charge up the building which electrocuted the Tree Creeper. The Tree Creeper was then fired through a window into an office in the building. When Matt and Emily went into the office and found the Tree Creeper there; the creature attacked them and trapped Matt under a table. However, Emily managed to force the Tree Creeper to retreat back outside by making acid and throwing it in the creature's face.

Matt and Emily then followed the Tree Creeper onto the building's roof, where Matt distracted it with a pole, while Emily secured two wires around the creature's neck and restrained it by tying the wires to the roof's railing. However, the Tree Creeper broke free and attacked Matt, who jumped out of the creature's way; causing the Tree Creeper to end up jumping off the roof and falling to its death in the street below.

Episode 5.5

When Convergence occurred in 2011, a Tree Creeper came through an Anomaly into the ARC's car park, and curiously investigated James Lester's new Jaguar car nearby. Lester soon came down into the car park via the elevator, and quickly dispatched the Tree Creeper with an EMD. The creature's fate is unknown, though it was presumably either killed by the EMD shot, returned through the Anomaly or placed in the Menagerie.

Trivia

The Tree Creeper is Hannah Spearritt's favorite creature in Series 4 and Series 5.
Like the Precambrian Worms, Silurian Scorpions, Silurian Millipedes and possibly Carboniferous Arachnids, the Tree Creeper is also an undiscovered species.
Some fans have speculated that the Tree Creepers could be another example of creatures from the Anomalies influencing mythology, as they resemble the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp.
The area of London that the Tree Creeper rampages through in Episode 4.3 appears to be the same area that the Spinosaurus rampaged through in Episode 4.1.
The way the creature is tied in the rope by Emily and Matt might be a reference to the way cowboys tied the Allosaurus in Valley of Gwangi.
The death of the last Tree Creeper near the end of Episode 4.3 after falling from a tall building is similar to King Kong's death in the 1933 film King Kong and the 2005 remake.
It may be loosely-based on the humanoid troodontids, or Dinosauroids, imagined by paleontologist Dale Russell.
This is the first dinosaur in Primeval franchise that wasn't confirmed by paleontologists.

Errors

It would be almost impossible for a creature of the Tree Creepers' size to have enough muscles in its body to have such a flexible and strong tail. Also, it is identified as an "arboreal raptor" by Matt Anderson, but all known raptors have very stiff tails that are used to steer the animals at high speeds, and not to grip onto branches, as is the case with the Tree Creeper.

Series 4 Main Creatures

Episode 4.1: Dracorex • Spinosaurus • Raptor
Episode 4.2: Kaprosuchus • Coelurosauravus (Rex) • Columbian Mammoth
Episode 4.3: Tree Creeper • Coelurosauravus (Rex)
Episode 4.4: Therocephalian • Coelurosauravus (Rex) • Columbian Mammoth