2024-07-13 23:19:39
Hippos are among the largest land animals, often weighing more than 2,000 kg. But because they spend a lot of time in water, we know less about how they move on land.
Now researchers have found that they can stay airborne for a considerable amount of time – as much as 15 percent. your step cycle. This is approximately 0.3 seconds.
Some other animals, including horses (and some human runners), take to the air quite easily. However, this is unusual for larger animals. Elephants never leave the ground on all four legs.
Research has also been inconsistent on whether hippos’ stride cycle is more similar to that of elephants (which are quadrupeds, so the left legs move forward together, followed by the right) or horses when they run (diagonally, with the front leg synchronizing with the opposite rear leg).
But new research from the Royal Veterinary College in the UK found that hippos almost exclusively move diagonally, whether they’re walking slowly or running. It is unusual for land animals to move so constantly.
Studying hippos is not easy because they are one of the most dangerous animals in the world.
“This is one of the reasons why, until our study, science knew little about the movement of hippos,” he says of a study published in the journal PeerJ lead author John Hutchinson. “Hippos are difficult to work with because they tend to be in the water and very rarely trained to be studied in zoos.”
Therefore, scientists studied videos of hippos from a resort in Yorkshire (UK). They studied 169 movement cycles of 32 hippos.
The researchers say the results expand what we know about the abilities of land mammals and may help us understand how hippos evolved. In practice, it could also help veterinarians diagnose and care for hippo injuries.
“We are delighted to present the first study to reveal how hippos walk and run,” says Mr Hutchinson. “We were pleasantly surprised to see the hippos take to the air at high speed – it’s really impressive!”
Parengta pagal „BBC Science Focus“.
2024-07-13 23:19:39