This presentation is about various strategies adopted by mammals for their locomotion. It relates the movement of mammals with their habitat and dietary behaviour.

1. Movement in Mammals

2. Jumping (Leaping ,Hopping)
• Most mammals can jump, and several groups including cats, hares,
galagos, lemurs, antelope, goats, springhare, kangaroo rat and
kangaroo appeared to be specialized for this lively means of
locomotion
• The potential survival benefits of enhanced jumping ability are:
1. Coping with obstacles in the environment
2. Pouncing to catch prey or
3. Leaping to avoid predators
• For arboreal (tree-dwelling) animals, jumping is an essential part of
travelling between branches
• For gliders, it is crucial element for a successful take-off
• Many forms of jumping involve the rapid extension of a pair of
limbs, and for quadrupedal mammals, this is usually the hind legs.
• In some mammals, including several small- and medium-sized
antelope, the part of jumping force comes from the spine
• There are mammals that perform hopping by hind legs like as
kangaroos (bipedal ricochet).

3. Snow leopard (Uncia uncia)
• Supreme jumper
• The snow leopard is arguably the most accomplished
mammalian jumper.
• These big cats live in rugged mountainous and steppe
terrain, among crags and tough, shrubby vegetation.
• When hunting, snow leopards routinely leap horizontal
distances of 6 to 15m and up to 6m in height.
• The leap is achieved by rapid pulling of the forelegs and
extension of the spine and hind legs.
• When leaping to such heights, landing becomes just as
important as take-off, and the snow leopard does this safely
using flexion of the feet, leg joints and spine to absorb the
shock of impact.

5. Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra)
• A spring in its step
• Medium- to small sized antelope like the springbok,
Thomson’s gazelle, impala, dik-dik and blackbuck are both
fast sprinters and excellent jumpers.
• Blackbuck have been recorded running at more than
80kmph (50mph) and leaping obstacles more than two
meters high while running.
• But the technique used by leaping antelope differs
considerably from that of cats like the snow leopard.
• While a cat jumps mainly by quick extension of all joints in
the hind legs, the antelope uses elastic energy stored in the
long tendons of the leg and in the spine to catapult it into
the next leap

7. Saltation
• The locomotor pattern of saltation (hopping) is found mainly
to kangaroos, rabbits, and some groups of rodents in the
vertebrates.
• All saltatory animals have hind legs that are approximately twice
as long as the anterior most legs.
• Although all segments of the hind leg are elongated, two of
them—the tibial (between upper segment and ankle) and tarsal
(ankle) segments—are the most elongated.
• There are at least four different saltatory patterns, but all are
similar in that the simultaneous retraction or extension of the
hind legs is followed by an aerial phase of movement.
• The aerial phase in all patterns is governed by the physical
principles of ballistics (the flight characteristics of an object): the
height and the length of the jumps are functions of the takeoff
velocity and angle.

8. • The longest jumps are attained when the takeoff angle is 45°.
• The positions and movements of the hind legs in rabbits and
kangaroos are similar to those of the frog.
• The saltatorial gait of rabbits is quadrupedal, whereas that of
kangaroos is bipedal.
• A jumping rabbit stretches forward and lands on its forefeet;
generally, both forefeet do not touch ground simultaneously.
• As the forefeet touch, the back flexes, and the hind end
rotates forward and downward.
• The hind feet touch down lateral to the forefeet, and, as the
back extends, a new jump begins.
• In contrast, the kangaroo lands on its hind feet, and the back
is held fairly straight through all phases of the jump, although
the body inclines forward at takeoff and posteriorly when
landing.

10. Red kangaroo (Macropus rufus)
• Speed hopper
• Kangaroos are sometimes seen as comical figures with their long tail, thin
neck, prominent ears and disproportionately large hindquarters.
• Their form is highly adaptive
• Kangaroo is both a sprinter and an endurance athlete, able to reach
speeds up to 70km/h (43mi/h) or hop continuously for two hours.
• The method of locomotion of the kangaroo is a hind-leg hop, also known
as a bipedal ricochet
• The long, heavy tail is used to control balance and propulsion.
• Long elastic tendons in the legs store energy as they stretch and then
release it to help catapult the animal forward into the next bound.
• In this way, kangaroos reduce the effort required to hop repeatedly, and
thus demand for oxygen consumption
• Similar bipedal ricochet locomotion is seen in a number of rodents,
including springhares, kangaroo rats and jerboas, whose long hind legs
and tail resemble those of kangaroos.

12. Fossorial locomotion
• A fossorial (from Latin fossor 'digger') animal is one adapted to
digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground.
• It is a necessity in most sub-terrestrial lifestyles.
• It involved burrowing and digging into the ground, and tunneling
underneath to forage for food and nest.
• Many animals dig, but moles are the most widely recognized
group of mammals that prefer this form of movement
exclusively.
• Their powerful forelimbs and large claws help fossorial species
to clear dirt and sand from their path.
• Life underground also leads to a reduction in eye complexity and
sight, so many of these species develop unique sensory organs
and tactics to cope.
• Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats,
and mole salamanders

13. • There are six major external modifications, as described by H. W.
Shimer in 1903, that are shared in all mammalian burrowing
species:
1. Fusiform: a spindle-shaped body tapering at both ends, adapted
for the dense subsurface environment.
2. Lesser developed or missing eyesight, considering subsurface
darkness.
3. Small or missing external ears, to reduce naturally
occurring friction during burrowing.
4. Short and stout limbs, since swiftness or speed of movement is
less important than the strength to dig.
5. Broad and stout forelimbs (manus), including long claws, designed
to loosen the burrowing material for the hind feet to disperse in
the back.
6. Short or missing tail having little to no locomotor activity or
burrowing use in most fossorial mammals.

15. Cursorial (running)
• Vertebrates are characterized by short, muscular upper legs and
thin, elongated lower legs.
• This adaptation decreases the duration of the retractive–protractive
cycle, thereby increasing the animal’s speed.
• Because the leg’s cycle is analogous to the swing of a pendulum,
reduction of weight at the end of the leg increases its speed of
oscillation.
• Cursorial mammals commonly use either the pace or the trot for
steady, slow running.
• The highest running speeds, such as the gallop, are obtained with
asymmetrical gaits.
• When galloping, the animal is never supported by more than two
legs and occasionally is supported by none.
• The fastest runners, such as cheetahs or greyhounds, have an
additional no-contact phase following hind foot contact.

17. Arboreal and aerial locomotion
1. Climbing
• The adaptation for climbing is unique for each group of
arboreal animals.
• All climbers must have strong grasping abilities, and they
must keep their centre of gravity as close as possible to the
object being climbed.
• Several locomotor patterns for climbing are used by
arboreal mammals
• Grasping ability of which has been enhanced by the
presence of either strong claws or prehensile fingers.
• Many monkeys use a climbing gait similar to the leg
sequence of walking.

19. 2. Leaping
• Small-bodied climbers with sharp claws, such
as squirrels, climb by the alternate use of forelegs
and hind legs
• Essentially, they hop up a tree.
• Prehensile-fingered climbers descend backward
and generally with a walking type of leg
sequence.
• Sharp-clawed species descend with a similar gait
sequence but with the head downward.
• The mechanics of arboreal leaping do not differ
from those of terrestrial saltation

20. • The upward thrust in both is produced by the rapid,
simultaneous extension of the hind legs.
• Because of the narrowness of the arboreal landing site,
however, landing behaviour does differ.
• Arboreal leaping also tends to be a discontinuous
locomotor behaviour that is used only to cross wide
gaps in the locomotor surface.
• Leaping from limb to limb is occasionally employed by
most climbers
 Appears to occur most frequently in animals with
opposable or at least prehensile forefeet, particularly
primates.
• Such forefeet enable the animal to grasp and hold onto
the landing site.

21. • Leaper
• Leaping is the characteristic locomotion of several
species of prosimian primates including forest-dwelling
lemurs and the bush babies, or galagos.
• Leaping is performed in trees to carry the animal from
branch to branch, or trunk to trunk.
• Leapers tend to have relatively long hind limbs and a
long, flexible spine.
• Propulsion comes largely from extension of the hind
legs and spine, while landing is controlled by the
forelimbs.
• The muscles of the hind limbs of the galago account for
25% of the entire body weight and produce powerful
propulsion.

23. Brachiation
• True brachiation (using the arms to swing from one place to
another) is confined to a few species of primates, such as
gibbons and spider monkeys.
• Because the body is suspended from a branch by the arms,
brachiation is strictly foreleg locomotion.
• When the animal moves, it relaxes the grip of one hand, and
the body pivots on the shoulder of the opposite arm and
swings forward.
• Then the free arm reaches forward at the end of the body’s
swing and grabs a branch.
• The sequence is then repeated for the other arm.
• This locomotor pattern produces a relatively rapid and
continuous forward movement but is restricted to areas with
thick canopies of trees.

24. • Brachiators have arms that may be as long or
longer than the body and a very motile
shoulder joint.

25. Gliding
• There are two functionally distinct forms of gliding,
gravitational gliding and soaring.
• The former is used by gliding amphibians, reptiles, and
mammals
• The latter is restricted to birds
• All gliders are able to increase the relative width of their
bodies, thereby increasing the surface area exposed to wind
resistance.
• Gliding mammals, such as the African flying squirrel and the
colugo, usually have, on each side of the body, a fold of skin
(the patagium).
• Patagium extends from their wrist or forearm backward along
the body to the shank of the hind leg or the ankle.

26. • When gliding, they assume a spread-eagle
posture, and the patagia unfold.

27. True flight
• Mammals generate forward thrust by flapping lateral
appendages, and all are free of any dependence on
gravitational descent or air currents.
• Flight is produced by the simultaneous rotation of the
left and right wings in a circle or in a figure eight.
• This rotation produces the upward thrust, or lift,
necessary to overcome gravity and the forward thrust
required to overcome drag.
• The downward and backward phase of rotation forces
the air backward and the body forward
• Lift is produced by the unequal velocities of the air
across the upper and lower wing surfaces.

28. • Unlike insect wings, the wings of bats are
linked structures
• The lateral extent and regional inclination of
bats’ wings are altered intrinsically by
muscular and bony segments.
• Most bats, utilize propulsive flight.
• As the body is not stationary in hovering flight,
the wing always moves forward relative to the
air
• The tip of the wing generally inscribes an oval
or figure-eight path.

30. Swimming
• Swimming is an almost universal ability among mammals,
including aquatic, semiaquatic and terrestrial species.
• Mammals are secondary swimmers
 Even wholly aquatic species such as whales and dolphins have
are descended from terrestrial ancestors
 They have returned to the water in order to access foods or
escape from terrestrial predators.
• Primary swimmers are those whose entire evolutionary history is
aquatic, such as fish.
• Many terrestrial mammals can swim, using cranio-caudal
movements of the hind feet/or forefeet.
• The semi-aquatic mammals, such as otters and platypus, have
physical adaptions for swimming such as webbed feet

31. • The fully aquatic mammals such as whales and dolphins,
manatees and seals have limbs and tail modified into
flippers or fins.
• All aquatic mammals swim using vertical undulation of a
flexible spine.
• This vertical movements is characteristic of mammals, and
evidence of a terrestrial ancestry.
• The overall density of the mammalian body is typically in
balance with that of water, giving neutral of positive
buoyancy in most cases.
• With the limbs no longer required to support the body
weight, locomotion in the water can achieved by paddling
to generate thrust and control direction.
• Swimming by mammals can be divided into four broad
types according to the means of generating thrust, as
follows:

32. 1.Swimming by paddling using the legs (e.g.
polar bear)
• Many terrestrial animals swim by paddling
their legs.
• Sloths, which spend the most of their lifetime
in trees, and elephants, which are the heaviest
animals on land, can swim very well in this
way.
• The polar bear is one of the best swimmers
among terrestrial animals.

34. 2. Swimming using webbed feet (otter)
• Webbed feet allow semiaquatic mammals such as
platypus, otters, hippos, coypu and beavers to achieve
high mobility both on land and in the water.
• The webbing comprises a thin membrane of skin
between the digits
 It increases the surface area of each paddle in contact
with the water, thereby increasing thrust.
• Otters have high mobility in the body axis and use
bending and extension of the spinal column to produce
vertical movements.
• In some animals with webbed feet, such as beavers and
otters, the tail is flattened or paddle-shaped to aid
swimming.

36. 3. Swimming using pectoral flippers and/or hind
flippers (Sea otter, Ringed seal, California sea lion)
• Pinnipeds swim and dive using pectoral and/or hind
limbs modified into flippers.
• The flippers are also used for locomotion on the land
• In the true (phocid) seals and walrus the limbs have
lost the ability to keep the body raised.
• A further difference is also apparent in swimming
• Phocid seals use pelvic oscillation to undulate the
paired hind flippers in the lateral plane.
• Fur seals and sea lions use pectoral flippers as
oscillatory hydrofoils.
• Both flipper-based propulsive mechanisms generate
remarkable lift-based thrust and maneuverability.

37. California sea lion Walrus

38. 4.Swimming using a tail fin (bottlenose
dolphin, dugong)
• Cetaceans and sirenians are completely aquatic
mammals with a long, thick, muscular tail and
large tail fins or flukes.
• They swim by beating the tail in a dorso-ventral
(vertical) plane.
• Both taxa have a streamlined body shape to
reduce turbulent flow and resistance from the
water.
• The powerful tail movements, require these
animals to have rather stiff bodies.