High-Speed Hippos Can Get Airborne, Says New Study
upstart writes:
Hippos can get airborne when moving at high speeds over land, according to a new study:
This is the first time that the animals, which can weigh more than 2,000 kilograms (2.2 tons) and spend much of their time in water, have been found to lift all four limbs off the ground when moving quickly, according to a statement from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in the UK.
After analyzing videos showing 169 movement cycles from 32 hippos, researchers found that the fastest-moving animals spend around 15% of each stride off the ground.
John Hutchinson, study lead author and a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the RVC, told CNN that very little was known about the way that hippos move on land.
"Hippos were a big missing part of the puzzle," he said. "They're really hard to study."
[...] The team also found that hippos almost exclusively trot - with two diagonal limbs moving in the same direction at the same time, and then the two other diagonal limbs - no matter what speed they are moving at, whereas other mammals such as horses switch from a walk to a trot to a gallop depending on their speed.
"Hippos are one of the very few four legged animals at all that just trot," said Hutchinson. "That was a pretty neat finding."
Journal Reference:
Hutchinson JR, Pringle EV. 2024. Footfall patterns and stride parameters of Common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) on land. PeerJ 12:e17675 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17675
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