Hippopotamus would be the last animal that one would ever imagine flying but scientists in the UK believe that the massive animal, which can weigh up to 2,000 kg, can sometimes become airborne.
Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire near London have examined footage of the creatures and revealed that when the hefty animals reach their top speed they may take off.
Scientists say these videos showed that while chasing off rival hippos, the herbivores lift all four feet off the ground at once up to 15% of the time. This news finding has placed hippos between some of the heaviest land animals in the world — elephants and rhinos — in terms of athletic skill.
While elephants maintain a walking pace even at high speed rhinos can walk, trot and even break into a gallop. On the other hand, hippos, typically trot, as their diagonally opposite legs move in sync.
“I’ve struggled to get any work done on hippos before because they’re so hard to access. They’re incredibly dangerous, they tend to be most active at night, and they spend a lot of their time in the water, ” John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics told the Guardian.
To study the animal, the researchers sifted through YouTube videos of hippos’ movements and assessed them frame by frame to see if their feet ever left the ground. Professor Hutchinson also sent one of his students to record videos of hippos running as they moved between their stable and watering hole and brought back the footage for analysis.
After reviewing these videos, they concluded that hippos typically stick to trotting at whatever speed they are moving, but when in a rush they can become airborne.
Professor Hutchinson believes that the findings of his research can be vital to understanding how big animals move on land, going back to dinosaurs.
While simple, the research had its challenges. Professor Hutchinson called the study “mind-numbing” and “really boring, agonising” as it required going frame-by-frame through a large number of videos.
