Hippos might fly: UK research discovers animal can get airborne

Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, said the work helped piece together the evolution of locomotion in large land animals. Photograph: Barbara Yuste Zambrano/Getty Images/iStockphoto

It takes a scientific mind to see the grunting hulk of a hippopotamus and wonder whether, given sufficient motivation, such an improbable beast might ever become airborne.

And so to researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, whose painstaking examination of footage of the creatures revealed that when the hefty herbivores reach top speed they do indeed take off.