Do Elephants Run?

Veterinarian Confirms Elephants Do Run...Kind Of
[by Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience / Fox News (8.22.06)]

When John Hutchinson, now at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London, was in graduate school, it was still an open question whether an elephant moving at high speeds could be considered to be running.

Hutchinson's new study finds that, although they're no greyhounds or cheetahs, fast-moving elephants have a springy step that qualifies them as runners within the animal world.

"No one knew," Hutchinson said. "But as the largest land animals, elephants were a study group that we needed to know more about, in order to interpret how dinosaurs might have moved, and uncover the basic rules about how giant land animals move."

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This research appears in the current issue of BBSRC Business, a magazine published by Britain's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

"Elephant Speed and Gait: The Locomotor Mechanics of the Largest Living Land Animal" by J.R. Hutchinson, Royal Veterinary College.

Photo credit: Young elephant steps out at Whipsnade Wild Animal Park while cameras record the movement on the disc shaped markers on its legs and back. John Hutchinson, Royal Veterinary College