 Reference Base  Locomotion and bone strength of the white rhinoceros Cera... |
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| Location: |
World |
| Subject: |
Behaviour - Locomotion |
| Species: |
White Rhino |
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Figure 1 shows an adult Ceratotherium galloping at 6.1 m/s. Other sequences (also of adults) show speeds up to 7.5 m/s. This is slightly above the maximum speed of 7.0 m/s recorded for butfalo (Syncerus cafferr) by Alexander, Langman & Jayes (1977), but well below the 11 m/s which they recorded for giraffe. The highest speed shown for Loxodonta in the film analysed by Alexander, Maloiy et al. (1979) was only 4-5 m/s, but this may not have been a maxmum speed. Other records of elephant speeds seem to be subjective estimates rather than measurements (Garland, 1983).
Previous analysis of our film by Alexander & Jayes (1983) showed that Ceratotherium change from trotting to galloping at about the same Froude number (a dimensionless speed parameter) as other cursorial mammals. At any particular Froude number they use about the same duty factor and relative stride length as other cursorial mammals. They are restricted to fairly low Froude numbers but, within the range available to them, move very much like smaller mammals.
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