They discover that hippos can fly.

hippos they don’t look like animals aerodynamic. It is hard to imagine them running. At best, we can imagine them swimming. The thing is, what we imagine about these peculiar animals is very far from reality. According to a new study, hippos cannot swim, but they can They are capable of flying.

No, this is not a joke. If we define flight as move forward in the air Hippos can fly without resting their limbs on the ground. Of course, they have to push their legs a little every now and then to get airborne again.

The study was just published in PeerJ Life. The authors came to this conclusion after analyzing several slow-motion videos. They did not find any previous studies with similar results. They believe that this is due to the fact that hippos are poorly studied animals due to their aggressiveness. Because yes, that’s another reality we sometimes have trouble understanding about hippos. These seemingly placid animals, who like to take mud baths while watching the world go by, are responsible for between 500 and 3,000 human deaths a year. The chance of dying from an encounter with them is 86.7%, which is higher than the 75% and 25% of deaths with ferocious lions and fearsome sharks, respectively.

Why don’t hippos swim?

Hippos spend a lot of time in the water. However, they usually live in shallow parts of rivers, walking along the bottom and jumping up and down with their legs. They are too densethat is why they do not have the ability to swim, and therefore, despite their love for water, they do not move through it by swimming.

It has been observed that some are able to dive; however, movement on the surface is generally impossible for them.

Fly high, little hippo

The authors of a newly published study from Royal Veterinary College of the United Kingdomanalyzed several videos of hippos trotting. In their analysis, they focused primarily on the position of the legs and the progression of the run.

Thus, they noticed that during 15% of the running time Hippos keep their four legs in the air. True, they haven’t done this for a long time. Some pass 0.3 seconds without stepping on the ground. However, this is much more than other four-legged animals, which are unable to move without placing at least one foot on the ground, achieve.

At full gallop, they can reach speeds of up to 30 kilometers per hour. The average person runs at a speed of about 12-14 kilometers per hour. Usain Bolt He managed to reach speeds of 44.72 kilometers per hour, but we are talking about clearly superior to humans when it comes to running ability.

Usually in a race between a man and a hippopotamus, the latter wins without any problems. That is why most attacks of these animals they are deadly. It is very difficult to escape from them, because during the chase they are basically capable of flying. They will not have wings, but if Usain Bolt does not need them, then it is clear that they do not either.