Elephants Run Like No Other

A biomechanical analysis of running elephants has revealed that Earth’s largest land animals do some strange things at high speed.

Unlike every other quadruped, they use all four legs for braking and propulsion, rather than rather dividing those tasks between hind and front legs.

Elephants also prove to be extremely inefficient while running. Compared to animals like horses, they perform quite poorly.

Scientists videotaped six Asian elephants as they ran across mechanical plates that measured the force of each stride. By combining gait models distilled from the video with force measurements, they could quantify the elephants’ biomechanics.

Surprisingly, they learned that braking and propulsion is performed equally by each leg. In other quadrupeds, rear legs are mostly used to push off, and front legs to slow down. The elephants’ arrangement likely makes them more stable and reduces physical stress placed on each leg.

Original article here.