While kangaroos are distinguished for their well-developed hindlimbs which they use to hop across the Australian outback, it seems South Africa has its own unusual hopper – the springhare. A new study published in the Journal of Anatomy suggests that “the diminutive springhare is a bit better at hopping than its more famous Australian counterpart, at least when it comes to muscle-tendon design, and implications for fast and accelerative hopping”.
This is according to Dr Ned Snelling, a senior lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Veterinary Science. He worked with scientists from Harvard and Idaho Universities as well as academics at Wits University, where they assessed the muscle-tendon design of the hindlimbs of springhares and compared it against 16 species of Australian hoppers.
“In the battle of the hoppers, it’s South Africa 1 and Australia 0,” Dr Snelling says. “We have long known that springhares are not hares but are a type of rodent. What we have not known, until now, is that springhares can claim some hopping prowess over Australia’s rat-kangaroos, wallabies and kangaroos.”
Continue reading at University of Pretoria.
Image via Amy Cheu.