Elephants and Groucho Marx

Scientists at Royal Veterinary College in London used motion sensors on both Asian and African elephants to confirm that the beasts do, in fact, run. The conventional definition of running for humans and other animals is that all feet (two or four) leave the ground at the same time, and while this does not happen with elephants, their change in gait is significant enough to call them runners.

"It’s odd, at only around two metre/second (5mph) they shift from a walk to a run, which is the same absolute speed at which humans change gait, but relative to their size is much slower – for almost any animal," said Dr John Hutchinson, who did the work with Dr Lei Ren. "The neat thing is that this shift is imperceptible to human eyes; they don’t really change their motions markedly like a horse (or human) does. They just pass smoothly from a walk to a ‘run’." Link

Elephants used to be described as doing "Groucho running," in honor of Groucho Marx’s signature gait, and the scientists’ findings defy the long-held notion that pachyderms are too large and too stiff to run. The discovery holds promise for the diagnosis of arthritis and other bone afflictions in animals as well as providing a new model for robotics.

While I’m happy for the elephants to finally be bona fide runners, this is a tomato-tomahto issue; whether they are running or walking, you’ll still be squished.