Reaching high speed with tiny steps and the powerful "fifth" leg - kangaroo part 3

kangaroo part 3

Beyond better understanding kangaroos’ movements, the research shows how important it is to push-off and help to redirect the body’s velocity when transitioning from one stance limb to the next, Donelan adds. “We know healthy humans do this nearly perfectly. We know that people with gait disorders and disabilities don’t do it as well, which increases the effort required for them to walk.

“Based on our original human research, fellow scientists and engineers have have built prosthetics and exoskeletons that help improve ability and make walking easier. And now we know that it is important enough that kangaroos have harnessed a limb originally evolved for swinging from trees to serve this role as functional fifth leg.”

Unusual gaits by unusual animals, such as pentapedal walking by kangaroos, provide insight into the breadth of solutions available to the same biomechanical problem, notes Donelan, who has also studied the movement of shrews, cats, crocodiles, giraffes and elephants.

And what’s not to find intriguing about kangaroos? “Their hopping is incredibly fast, powerful and efficient. Their walking, on the other hand, is as awkward as their hopping is graceful, but underlying the walking is this entirely new use for a tail. Biomechanically, it is all fascinating.”

Videos
Video explaining the pentapedal walking gait Credit: SFU Locomotion Lab
Video of a red kangaroo walking at the Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station Credit: Catharina Vendl, Fowlers Gap