Hippos are more limber than you may’ve previously thought . The fifth - heaviest country mammal is able of becoming airborne while clip at eminent speeds , according to arecent studyout of the University of London ’s Royal Veterinary College .
While analyzingfootageof 169 dissimilar pace from 32 hippos , the investigator said they never spot a gallop . Instead , the exceedingly powerful mammalian stuck to a trot ( or near - trot ) — a traffic pattern in which their human foot strike the earth in diagonal span . While running , their trot feature a brief airy phase ; at peak speeds , the hippos reportedly spentabout 15%of each tread wholly airborne . This aerial stage had not , to the researchers ’ knowledge , been previously report .
Their preference to trot is an “ strange formula for large terrestrial mammal , ” according to the researchers ; rhinoceroses and giraffes , for case , employ unlike step patterns at dissimilar speed . ( However , it may not have always been unusual;long - necked dinosaurs , for representative , may’ve employed a gait somewhat similar to hippos , per unrelated research . )
Adult hippos entering the water in Kenya’s Maasai Mara park © slowmotiongli for iStock / Getty Images Plus
Hippos expend much of their daysin the pee , but around crepuscule they “ lumber onto land , ” perNational Geographic , to graze onroughly 80 poundsof grass in darkness . Their aquatic and , at times , aggressivenature make the mammals tricky to take , said John R. Hutchinson , an evolutionary biomechanics prof at the Royal Veterinary College and the lead author of the field .
“ Hippos are n’t often kept in captivity for easy access code and even then tend to be backbreaking to run with because they spend not so much time on land , are active at dark , are hard to propel and super dangerous if they are actuate , and there ’s little training of them in captivity , ” Hutchinson told Gizmodo . In the state of nature , “ there are all kinds of problems access them ( you basically have to get golden and catch a rare shot of a fast hippo ) , ” he added .
Hutchinson also recognize this is a “ rather niche topic . ”
“ There was n’t an answer to this question partly because few scientist had enquire ( openly in papers , anyway ) , ” he say . “ But as my research heavily focuses on how grievous animals sustain major constraints to their locomotor ability on land , I had to tackle it sooner or later . ”
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