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It is generally thought that elephants do not run, but there is confusion about how fast they can move across open terrain and what gait they use at top speed. Here we use video analysis to show that some Asian elephants (Elephas maximus Linn.) can move at surprisingly high speeds of up to 6.8 m s-1 (25 km h-1) and that, although their gait might appear to be a walk even at this speed, some features of their locomotion conform to definitions of running.
It was poorly known how fast elephants can move, and whether they run in any sense. To solve these two mysteries, we worked with 42 Asian elephants in Thailand that were known for being healthy and quick. We used video analysis to measure the average speed of each elephant across the middle 10 meters of a 30 meter long course. We found that the elephants routinely went much faster than previously documented (~4 m/s, 10 mph, or 16 kph), up to speeds as high as 6.8 m/s (~15 mph, 25 kph). At these faster speeds, the elephants still did not leave the ground, seeming like they might have still been walking even at such fast speeds. Yet we looked more closely at their motions at those speeds and found several subtle lines of evidence that -- in a strict biomechanical sense -- they were running, not walking. Running is a bouncing gait rather than a rigid-legged gait, so it seems likely that elephants “bounce” at faster speeds. We cannot conclusively state that elephants can run, because we need measurements from force platforms to do that, and unfortunately conventional force platforms would break if used with elephants. However, it seems likely that elephants can run, and the force platform studies are being prepared.
John Hutchinson Staff Home Page Structure & Motion Lab
