Footfall patterns and stride parameters of Common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) on land.

ABSTRACT: Common hippopotamuses (hippos) are among the largest extant land mammals. They thus offer potential further insight into how giant body size on land influences locomotor patterns and abilities. Furthermore, as they have semi-aquatic habits and unusual morphology, they prompt important questions about how locomotion evolved in Hippopotamidae. However, basic information about how hippos move is limited and sometimes contradictory. We aimed to test if hippos trot at all speeds and if they ever use an aerial (suspended) phase, and to quantify how their locomotor patterns (footfalls and stride parameters) change with approximate speed. We surveyed videos available online and collected new video data from two zoo hippos in order to calculate the data needed to achieve our aims; gathering a sampl

SUBMITTER: Hutchinson JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11227274 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature