"Flies Outside Water"... Research Reveals Twist About 2-Ton 'Tyrant of the Water'

UK Researchers' Hippo Analysis Results
Difficult to Study Due to Over 2t Weight of Water Tyrant
Floats 15% of the Time When Moving Quickly

A study has found that hippos, the "tyrants of the water" weighing over 2 tons, "fly" by keeping all four legs on the ground when moving quickly on land.

On the 5th, CNN reported, citing a statement from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in the UK, that "this is the first time it has been discovered that this animal, which weighs over 2.2 tons and spends most of its time in water, lifts all four legs off the ground when moving quickly." The research team analyzed 169 movement videos of 32 hippos and found that the fastest-moving animals lift their feet off the ground for about 15% of each stride.

John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at RVC and the lead author of the study, told CNN that little is known about how hippos move on land. Hutchinson said that hippos not only spend a lot of time in water but are also "very aggressive and dangerous," and are more active at night. The researchers noted, "In the videos studied, hippos tend to move quickly when motivated by something, such as chasing a competing hippo or being chased by lions or rhinoceroses."

Hutchinson said that these findings could help determine how to better care for hippos in captivity and assist in detecting and monitoring if hippos are experiencing physical problems. The study was recently published in the open-access journal ‘PeerJ.’