Elephants Move Like 4x4s
The researchers employed force platforms in conjunction with advanced 3D motion capture imaging to determine the elephants’ movements.
The research has found that, like a 4x4 vehicle, all four of an elephant’s legs both brake and accelerate the animal. This finding has overturned the classic assumption that all four-legged animals divide the labour between their legs, using the forelegs more for braking and the hindlegs for acceleration. Like all-wheel drive vehicles, elephants have eliminated this separation, something no other four-legged animal is thought to do.
All four elephant legs were discovered to be slightly ‘bouncy’, especially when running at faster speeds, rather than the rigid limbs typical of walking. The ‘bouncier’ legs give the animal poor leverage, which is surprising because it was thought that big animals, especially elephants, would need “pillar-like” legs to efficiently support their weight. Their leverage is about 2-3 times less than previous theory predicted from their size, and is similar to that in humans. This poor leverage makes running about 50 per cent more costly than walking and accounts for why elephants are slower than many other animals.
Dr. John Hutchinson, senior researcher on the study and Reader in Evolutionary Biomechanics in the Department of Veterinary Basic Sciences at the RVC, predicts their work will have long-lasting implications for how researchers will henceforth measure and assess the movement of other animals.
Like all-wheel drive vehicles, elephants have eliminated this separation, something no other four-legged animal is thought to
do.
do.
Dr. Hutchinson’s team, including first author Dr. Lei Ren, made these discoveries while measuring the forces on elephant legs from walking to running speeds. They also examined the compliance of the legs and how they support and move the body.
The team used fast and athletic elephants from the Thai Elephant Conversation Centre in Lampang, Thailand as subjects.
To measure the forces elephants exert on their environment, the researchers employed force platforms in conjunction with advanced 3D motion capture imaging to determine the elephants’ movements.
Joanne Webster, a professor of parasitic diseases at the RVC, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
