Locomotor preferences in terrestrial vertebrates: An online crowdsourcing approach to data collection

Lees, J; Gardiner, JD; Usherwood, J; Nudds, R

Abstract

Understanding how animals move within their environment is a burgeoning field of research. Despite
this, relatively basic data, such as the locomotor speeds that animals choose to walk at in the wild,
are sparse. If animals choose to walk with dynamic similarity, they will move at equal dimensionless
speeds, represented by Froude number (Fr). Fr may be interpreted from simple limb kinematics
obtained from video data. Here, using Internet videos, limb kinematics were measured in 112 bird and
mammal species weighing between 0.61 and 5400 kg. This novel method of data collection enabled
the determination of kinematics for animals walking at their self-selected speeds without the need for
exhaustive fieldwork. At larger sizes, both birds and mammals prefer to walk at slower relative speeds
and relative stride frequencies, as preferred Fr decreased in larger species, indicating that Fr may not be
a good predictor of preferred locomotor speeds. This may result from the observation that the minimum
cost of transport is approached at lower Fr in larger species. Birds walk with higher duty factors, lower
stride frequencies and longer stance times compared to mammals at self-selected speeds. The trend
towards lower preferred Fr is also apparent in extinct vertebrate species.

Citation

Lees, J., Gardiner, J., Usherwood, J., & Nudds, R. (2016). Locomotor preferences in terrestrial vertebrates: An online crowdsourcing approach to data collection. Scientific reports, 6(28825), https://doi.org/10.1038/srep28825

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 31, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jul 6, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 6, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 28, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 28, 2016
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Print ISSN: 2045-2322
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 28825
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep28825
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep28825
• Related Public URLs: http://www.nature.com/srep/
• Additional Information: Grant Number: RPG-2012-759