Whilst advances in real-time computer graphics continue to permit the development of increasingly vivid virtual worlds, the degree of interaction between the environment and the animated characters within remains relatively limited. There has been little research into the realistic realtime simulation of creatures with the ability to scale arbitrary surfaces and fully explore their environment. Natural looking animations of such feats would greatly enhance immersion in computer games, as well as potentially being of benefit to fields such as phobia therapy and Artificial Life research. This thesis presents a system for dynamically animating ground based arthropods in realtime, capable of autonomous exploration over arbitrarily complex environments. The physical grounding of the creatures allows for complex, emergent animations to form that are specific and unique to the situation. By removing any disconnect between creature and environment, not only can the Arthropod interact with physically simulated objects in the virtual world, the actual interaction in turn affects the behaviour and resultant animation. This constant creaturebehaviour feedback elevates the vividness of the animation beyond all but the most contrived or carefully designed agent-environment interactions found in other simulations.