Your data on MRCVSonline
The nature of the services provided by Vision Media means that we might obtain certain information about you.
Please read our Data Protection and Privacy Policy for details.

In addition, (with your consent) some parts of our website may store a 'cookie' in your browser for the purposes of
functionality or performance monitoring.
Click here to manage your settings.
EmailIphone Application    Posted: 25th May 2010
If you would like to forward this story on to a friend, simply fill in the form below and click send.
Your friend's email:
Your email:
Your name:
 
 
Send Cancel
New Findings About Bird Movement
RVC research has discovered that birds use a 'hybrid' gait at intermediate speeds.
Research at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has discovered that birds use a third ‘hybrid’ gait at intermediate speeds, going against the mechanics of walking and running understood by many.

Humans walk with relatively stiff limbs, ‘vaulting’ over a leg each step and run with more compliant legs with a flight phase between each stance. However, these new findings indicate that there is a gait totally unfamiliar to normal humans, which involves achieving both walking-like vaulting and running-like ballistic mechanics during the hybrid gait.

The RVC’s Structure and Motion Laboratory team discovered that guinea fowl and pheasants never quite take off during the ballistic phase. Researcher Dr. Jim Usherwood refers to this hybrid gait as ‘Grounded Inverted Pendular Running’ or the GIPR gait, for short.

“The ‘GIPR’ involves both relatively stiff-limbed walking-like vaulting over midstance, and near-ballistic running-like phases between stances,” explains Usherwood. “This discovery supports the previous idealised models of walking and running which demonstrate that, energetically, walking should be favoured up to, and even somewhat over, those speeds and step lengths that can be achieved while retaining the stance leg under compression.”

Recently, numerical energetic optimisations of reductionist models have considered a huge range of potential bipedal gaits, and demonstrated that walking and running, and this third, strange, hybrid gait should be favoured at certain speeds and step lengths.

The hybrid gait supports the notion that many aspects of gait mechanics can be understood without requiring detailed musculoskeletal models or a presumption of spring-like leg properties.
To test these predictions, the centre-of-mass velocities of four guinea fowl and three pheasants (during locomotion and at a range of speeds) were calculated from integrating acceleration data derived from force plate measurements by the RVC.

“This new gait supports the notion that many aspects of gait mechanics can be understood without the need for detailed musculoskeletal models or a presumption of spring-like leg properties. It also raises the possibility that hybrid or unconventional gaits might be valuable in improving the efficiency of bipedal robots,” concludes Usherwood.

Become a member or log in to add this story to your CPD history

Practices urged to audit neutering data

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has called on vet practices to audit their post-operative neutering outcomes.

It follows the release of the 2024 NASAN benchmarking report, which collates data from neutering procedures performed on dogs, cats and rabbits.

The benchmarking report enables practices in the UK and Ireland to compare their post-operative outcomes to the national average. This includes the rate of patients lost to follow-up, which in 2024 increased to 23 per cent.

Anyone from the practice can submit the data using a free template. The deadline for next report is February 2026.

Visit the RCVS Knowledge website to complete an audit. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
RCVS pays tribute to well-loved equine vet

The RCVS and the Riding Establishments Subcommittee has paid tribute to well-loved veterinary surgeon and riding establishment inspector, Rebecca Hamilton-Fletcher MRCVS.

Linda Belton MRCVS, RCVS President, said: "I, along with my colleagues on the RESC, RCVS Council, RCVS Standards Committee, as well as RCVS staff, was very saddened to hear of the sudden death of Rebecca, or Becca as we knew her, last week.

"She was a true advocate for equine welfare and in her many years on the RESC worked to continually improve the quality and consistency of riding establishment inspections, all in the interests of enhanced horse welfare and rider safety."