The running kinematics of free-roaming giraffes, measured using a low cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Giraffes can gallop without ever leaving the ground completely. A running adult may look as though its long legs should launch it into the air, yet the animals analysed in this study always kept a foot down. Their gallop also began at speeds where many other four-legged mammals would trot.

Christopher Basu, Francois Deacon, John Hutchinson and Alan Wilson filmed free-roaming giraffes at three South African sites with a drone. They calibrated the footage using body measurements and ground features, then analysed 25 strides from four similarly sized adults. Unlike their walking study, this approach could follow animals moving across open ground.

The adults galloped at recorded speeds of 3.4–6.9 metres per second, without an intervening trot or pace. They accelerated mainly by lengthening strides, while the timing of left and right feet became closer together. The team suggested that overlapping support could limit loading on the limbs, but did not measure those forces. Some juveniles briefly became airborne, so the grounded pattern is not universal. What looks like one extravagant running motion is a coordinated way of going faster while maintaining contact with the ground.