The hippopotamus may have been the last animal thought to be capable of flying, but British scientists believe the giant animal, which can weigh up to 2,000 kilograms, may have sometimes Can fly in the air. Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire, near London, have examined footage of the creatures and revealed that when these massive animals reach their maximum speed they can fly.
Scientists say that these videos show that while chasing rival hippos, herbivorous animals lift all four legs off the ground at a time 15% of the time. This new discovery puts hippos among elephants and rhinos, some of the heaviest land animals in the world, in terms of athletic prowess.
Elephants maintain a walking speed even at high speed, while rhinos can walk, run and even gallop. Hippos, on the other hand, generally run because their diagonally opposite legs move together.
Hippos move fast and fly
John Hutchinson, professor of evolutionary biomechanics, told the Guardian: “I have struggled to do any work on hippos in the past because they are so difficult to access. “They are incredibly dangerous, they are most active at night and they spend most of their time in water.”
To study the animal, researchers watched YouTube videos of hippo movements and evaluated them frame by frame to determine whether their feet ever left the ground. Professor Hutchinson also sent one of his students to record video of the hippos running between their stables and the watering hole and brought the footage back for analysis.
After reviewing these videos, they concluded that hippos usually keep moving at whatever speed they are moving, but can become airborne when they are in a hurry.
Professor Hutchinson believes that the findings of his research could be important for understanding how large animals move on land.
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