It is widely known that the walking gait of giraffes (Giraffa) is unusual (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Categorisation-of-giraffes-walking-gait-Reproduction-of-Hildebrands-plot-for_fig3_329382181 and https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/41/2/282/933378?redirectedFrom=PDF&login=false).
However, like many 'factoids' about Nature, this is subject to context.
It is true that giraffes have a 'parallel', not a 'diagonal', stride while walking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9redgIffu4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBz1rQ5z8uE and https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1723826704314545and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh2yveXTKaU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9TuZCG1f0k).
However, the same is true also for many Carnivora.
The lion (Panthera leo), walking behind its intended prey, a giraffe, uses the same 'parallel' stride (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9TuZCG1f0k and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QnyACx936I and https://stock.adobe.com/images/big-lion-walking-shot-in-profile/210044363 and https://www.africanreferencephotos.com/photo/2209/Profile-of-Male-Lion-Walking.html).
And, in turn, the lion walks similarly to the brown bear (Ursus arctos, https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=bear+walking&asset_id=298297872 and https://stock.adobe.com/search?filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aphoto%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aillustration%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Azip_vector%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Avideo%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Atemplate%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3A3d%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aaudio%5D=0&filters%5Binclude_stock_enterprise%5D=0&filters%5Bis_editorial%5D=0&filters%5Bfree_collection%5D=0&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aimage%5D=1&k=bear+walking&order=relevance&safe_search=1&limit=100&search_page=2&get_facets=0&search_type=pagination&asset_id=129616916).
(Yes, it is true that the brown bear walks like a giraffe, in the sense that the hind foot lifts only once the opposite fore foot has landed, and the hind foot lands (i.e. 'oversteps') considerably anterior to the print of the fore foot on the same side.)
Why is it, then, that this 'parallel' stride is seen as remarkable in giraffes, but not in Carnivora - including the domestic dog (Canis familiaris, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqBcBsmMQVA)?
The obvious answer is:
because a gait that is normal in a plantigrade (e.g. brown bear) and digitigrade (e.g. lion) mammal seems much odder in mammals (giraffes) that are not only unguligrade, but extremely long-legged even among ungulates.
The above framing may explain, at least partly, why giraffes have a reputation for walking in an odd way.
For it is indeed remarkable that, in going from a 'flat-footed' animal, such as a bear, to an animal with 'stilts' for legs, such as a giraffe, the same gait is retained.
However, if this was a complete explanation, then all other hoofed mammals, including those with relatively short legs, would also walk like giraffes and Carnivora.
And this far from being true.
In fact, most ruminants walk in a different way, using a 'diagonal' stride. This applies to all deer (Cervidae, https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/91548-walking-gaits-in-cervidae-deer-tend-to-cross-walk-as-opposed-to-the-ambling-typical-of-many-bovids-part-1#) and many bovids (Bovidae, https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/85349-gaits-and-other-aspects-of-locomotion-in-hippotragin-bovids#).
Consider the tiger (Panthera tigris) following the sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) (https://www.naturepl.com/stock-photo-bengal-tiger-nature-image01234681.html and https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=282670022702595 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX7oEFWuV2I).
The predator uses a 'parallel' stride (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIBAT6BGE6U and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fhAzkK_s_Y), whereas the prey uses a 'diagonal' stride (https://videohive.net/item/beautiful-male-sambar-rusa-unicolor-deer-walking-in-the-forest-of-ranthambore-national-park/25553355 and https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1086299906-medium-shot-alert-male-sambar-deer-rusa and https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1104756293-sambar-deer-rusa-unicolor-walking-carefully-dense).
One explanation for this anomaly is as follows.
Unguligrady is an adaptation mainly for rapid and enduring fleeing from predators. In the 'arms-race' between prey and predator, hoofed mammals have compensated for the disadvantage of being surprised by predators, by having more efficient sprinting than that of Carnivora.
However, all benefits are accompanied by certain costs. And in the case of ruminants, a cost of 'living on stilts' (= unguligrady) is the risk of instability while walking.
Ruminants compensate for this risk by tending to use diagonal patterns in their walking strides.
This allows deer, for example,
It is only in two categories of ruminants that all 'diagonality' seems to have been abandoned while walking.
These are
'Plains game' artiodactyls emphasise efficiency of walking over stability of walking. This is, hypothetically, why they use a 'parallel' stride, rather than a 'diagonal stride (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WcG532I4is and https://www.google.com.au/search?sca_esv=361d108b9e725553&sxsrf=ACQVn0_rxEkkCe56q3nf8k8XrPxMiTH8Hw:1712749994086&q=Wildebeest+walking+video&tbm=vid&source=lnms&prmd=visnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_vPH3yreFAxUrVmwGHb1bClcQ0pQJegQIDBAB&biw=1004&bih=549&dpr=2.7#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:2130b2ac,vid:-_if9UL39Lc,st:0). Their walking gaits are like that of giraffes, but for different reasons.
So, where do impalas fit into this conceptual framework?
Well, impalas walk like giraffes (https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/49366-locomotory-and-postural-peculiarities-of-impalas-aepyceros-part-1#activity_comment_b2dbc656-b062-4be7-9b31-eb6fdd6dc640).
This can perhaps best be explained by comparing impalas with alcelaphin bovids (Alcelaphini).
Alcelaphins (wildebeests, hartebeests, and damalisks) epitomise 'plains game'. They are odd among ruminants in their combination of
It is as part of the above syndrome that the 'parallel' stride of alcelaphins, when walking, can be considered. Alcelaphins are locomotorily aberrant, as part of an extreme relationship to predation.
For their part, impalas are odd among ruminants in their combination of
We can, in light of the above, think of impalas as 'plains game adapted to relatively dense vegetation' (https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/89704-can-precociality-in-the-colouration-of-impalas-aepyceros-be-explained-by-their-confusing-nature-as-sedentary-plains-game-part-1#).
This would place them - albeit with some 'sheohorning' - into the third category above, namely 'plains game'.
And this leads us to realise something shared by all the ruminants that use 'parallel' - as opposed to 'diagonal' - strides while walking, namely an inability/reluctance to use the ordinary running method known as trotting (https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/49366-locomotory-and-postural-peculiarities-of-the-impala-part-1#).
A trot is a 'diagonal' way of running. It is a standard gait in Carnivora and ungulates.
However, it is
All of these ruminants have - in their own ways and for different reasons - abandoned trotting, as a gait for fleeing and commuting. It is in light of this common denominator that their adoption of a 'parallel' stride, when walking, can be appreciated.
What, then, should we call the 'parallel' gait used by giraffes, camels, 'plains game', and impalas alike?
I suggest that the best term is 'an amble'.
(This is not to be confused with a pace, which is also uses 'parallel' strides, but is a running gait, not a walking one.)
And this means that - to everyone's surprise - impalas and giraffes are evolutionarily convergent in ambling while walking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K24qSp49HHg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jeoFaKDb70).
This is despite the obvious differences between impalas and giraffes in
Furthermore, any preoccupation that giraffes walk oddly - which remains true in its way but is easily misinterpreted - may now have been overtaken. The more current notion - given the ordinariness of their body-proportions - should be that impalas walk even more oddly.
And this invites the next step in my investigative stroll, as follows.
Warthogs (Phacochoerus) - equally surprisingly - seem to amble (https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/85161-variation-in-walking-gaits-in-ungulates-part-1-why-some-hoofed-mammals-cross-walk-whereas-others-amble#activity_comment_1c97f582-aac3-4d6d-b15f-c533aaba47b5).
This is in keeping with impalas inasmuch as these aberrant suids are 'plains game'. However, the new complication is that warthogs have certainly retained a trotting gait...
Please also see
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2cFqXHDoQZs
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-441868160/stock-photo-giraffe-and-impala-antelope-stand-in-the-boundless-african-savannah%2C-looking-into-the-distance-the
https://www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/the-giraffe-in-its-world#:~:text=The%20giraffe%20has%20two%20different,legs%20on%20the%20opposite%20side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ0HHMkIVFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9FunBolqvA
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165329533
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163630087
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/155879893
@beartracker
THE COMPLICATED WALKING GAITS OF CAMELIDAE (which are secondarily digitigrade)
Camelus dromedarius (https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1974.tb03144.x)
ambling:
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1067425-camel-walking---slow-motion
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1015419376-camel-train-on-clean-background-isolated-caravan
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/93961265-camel-walking-dromedary-one-humped-somali-arabian-camel-gree
The following shows C. dromedarius walking upslope on loose sand. The gait conforms to an amble in that the hind foot lifts only once the opposite fore foot has landed. However, it conforms to a cross-walk in that there is no 'overstepping', the hind foot landing in the track of the forefoot:
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1111455537-sahara-desert-morocco---13-september-2022
The following shows C. dromedarius walking downslope on firm sand. Not only is there no 'overstepping', but the hind foot lands somewhat posterior to the track of the fore foot:
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1101127133-row-camels-walking-sand-near-dunes-desert
Llama glama (https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00739.x)
ambling:
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/video/llamas-walking-stock-footage/602230062
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1087161929-peru-30-november-2021-native-peruvian-walking
?semi cross-walking:
authentic? https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-15300313-isolated-white-llama-cyclical-walking-can-be
authentic? https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1015420108-red-llama-walking-isolated-cyclic-animation-green
Lama pacos
"Alpacas moved using lateral sequence walks, mainly lateral couplets walks and runs with some lateral sequence, singlefoot footfall patterns. Remarkably, the alpacas never truly paced or trotted" (https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00763.x)
ambling:
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1106920215-llamas-walking-sacsayhuaman-cusco-peru
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1075794398-happy-alpaca-walking-on-grass
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1079083550-llama-alpaca-walk-side-by-farmer's-corner
authentic? https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1027184114-lama-slowly-walking-seamlessly-looped-on-green
In ruminants, an amble can be thought of as a 'determined' or 'resolute' or 'purposeful' walking gait. By contrast, a cross-walk can be thought of as a 'hesitant' or 'tentative' or 'furtive' walking gait.
ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA
cross-walking:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-pronghorn-antelope-walking-through-a-saskatchewan-crop-19106032.html
semi cross-walking
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/pronghorn-antelope-walking-in-the-plains-hag1g3ixwj2v2c9nu
https://stock.adobe.com/au/video/pronghorn-antelope-walking-through-the-grass-along-flaming-gorge-in-utah/532329192
ambling:
https://www.dreamstime.com/antelope-walking-field-large-pronghorn-deer-grazes-prairie-land-national-elk-bison-range-montana-image160672784
https://stock.adobe.com/au/video/pronghorn-antelope-walking-through-the-grass-along-flaming-gorge-in-utah/532329192
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/video/clip-1093543123-pronghorn-antelope-stops-walking-utah-desert-looks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSzqxm3GqGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5QQ85aXipc
Strepsiceros strepsiceros semi cross-walking:
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-31184891/stock-photo-nyala-antelope-walking-in-the-bushes
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