Recent Study Finds Nile Horses Can 'fly' When Moving Fast

Badminton. (Wikimedia Commons/Bernard Gagnon)

JAKARTA - A study conducted by a research team recently found that hippos can 'fly' as they move at high speed on land.

In a statement from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in the UK, it is the first time an animal weighing more than 2,000 kilograms (2.2 tonnes) and spending most of its time in this water is known to lift all four feet from the ground as it moves quickly.

After analyzing a video showing 169 motion cycles of 32 hippos, researchers found the fastest-moving animals spent about 15 percent of each move above ground.

John Hutchinson, lead author of evolutionary biomechanical studies and professors at RVC, told CNN, very little is known about how hippos move on land.

"The nil is a big part of this puzzle," he said, launching CNN July 4

"They are very difficult to study," he continued.

"They don't just spend a lot of time in the water, they are also "very aggressive and dangerous" and more active at night, said Professor Hutchinson.

In videos studied by researchers, hippos tend to move quickly when something motivates them, such as chasing an opponent's hippos or being chased by lions to rhinos, he said.

The team also found that hippos almost exclusively ran small with two diagonal legs moving in the same direction at the same time, while the other two diagonal legs, no matter how fast they moved, while other mammals such as horses switched from walking to small running to racing being a race depending on their speed.

"The hippos are one of the few four-legged animals that only run small," said Professor Hutchinson.

"It was a pretty good finding," he said.

He said the results of this study could help inform how hippos are kept in captivity, as well as help detect and monitor whether hippos are experiencing physical problems.

One example of a video showing a baby nail dwarf running fast has given Professor Hutchinson a starting point for further research, he said, adding he wanted to investigate whether small hippos, such as hippo babies and baby hippos, were able to run fast but lose this ability as they grew.

It is known, the study was published on Wednesday this week in the journal 'PeerJ'.