A painstaking analysis by scientists at the Royal Veterinary College in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, of videos of hippos has shown that when they reach top speed, the mammals… fly, The Guardian reports.
Elephants have a standard gait even at high speeds. PHOTO Shutterstock
Video footage indicated that hippos lift their four legs off the ground simultaneously 15 percent of the time when moving at full speed, most often to chase off opponents.
This discovery places hippos between elephants and rhinos in terms of the athletic prowess some of the heaviest animals display when they need to move.
“I have struggled to do research on hippos so far because they are very difficult to access.”, said John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics who led the research. “They are incredibly dangerous, tend to be more active at night and spend a lot of time in the water.”.
Unsatisfied with the information he found in the literature, Hutchinson commissioned a student, Emily Pringle, to film the hippos. Pringle moved to Flamingo Land Resort in North Yorkshire, as there the mammals have more space to run. She captured the animals as they moved and handed out the images to be studied.
Hippos can detach their feet from the ground
The scientists then studied the footage, as well as other footage culled from YouTube, frame by frame, to see if the hippos were ever able to lift all four legs off the ground at the same time.
In PeerJ, the authors concluded that, compared to other large mammals, hippos, regardless of speed, typically maintain a trotting motion, but can lift their feet off the ground.
Other large animals also move differently. Elephants have a standard gait even at high speeds and never completely leave the ground. Rhinos can walk and gallop. Footage of hippos has indicated that the mammals, which can weigh over 2,000 kg, typically stomp, a movement that involves the synchronized movement of diagonally opposite legs.
Hutchinson said the research was “as simple as biomechanical research can be“, but it also encountered challenges: studying the images frame by frame. “It’s mind-boggling“, he said. “It’s one of the things about my job that I hate the most. It’s very boring. Agonizing.”
Research continues. Hutchinson learned that pygmy hippos, a different species than the animals he studied, could gallop.
“I wonder if baby hippos can do something that adult hippos can’t“, he said. “That would be quite interesting“.
