Pigs can't fly but hippopotamuses probably can, scientists discover

Hippopotamuses can fly according to new research that suggests the giant land creatures can become airborne for substantial periods of time.

When trotting fast, their feet leave the ground for up to 0.3 seconds at a time, new research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has found.

The findings also show that, unlike most large land animals, hippos almost exclusively trot, with the fastest ones taking to the air.

Hippos can test the apparent limits of what giant land animals can do, even though they are amphibious.

John Hutchinson, Professor of evolutionary biomechanics and lead author of the study, said: “It’s hard to work with hippos as they tend to stick to the water and very seldom are trained to be studied in zoo collections.

“They’re also very dangerous. That’s part of the reason why science knew little about how hippos move before our research.

“We’re thrilled to provide the first study purely focused on revealing how hippos walk and run.

“We were pleasantly surprised to see how hippos get airborne when they move quickly – it’s really impressive.”

Researchers stated the findings will enhance our understanding of how the size of large animals affects their movement on land.

Hippopotamuses are among the largest and most dangerous land animals and can often weigh more than 2,000 kilograms.

Previous studies have suggested that animals often use a standard four-footed (quadrupedal) walk, with a footfall sequence of left hind, left fore, right hind, right fore – similar to elephants.