British scientists have discovered that the hippopotamus, the world’s second heaviest land animal, can fly off the ground while running. Scientists at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC-UK) have discovered that the hippopotamus, an animal that weighs about 1.5 tons, is capable of flying in the air, even for a very short time, according to RT.

Scientists shared their findings in a paper titled “Stride patterns and stride parameters of terrestrial hippos,” which was peer-reviewed in the scientific journal PeerJ. According to the study, hippos can stay airborne for up to 0.3 seconds when running at full speed.

“Our most striking findings are that hippos typically trot (run slowly), and use hovering when running fast,” the paper said. Such a method of locomotion is not found in other large land animals such as elephants, rhinos, or horses.

The scientists came to this conclusion after analyzing videos of 169 locomotion cycles from a total of 32 hippos, filmed in “survival situations” such as trying to escape from lions or rhinos, or fighting with other hippos. Studies in the UK have shown that hippos spend about 15% of each run without touching the ground.

“We were amazed to see how hippos can fly into the air when they move fast, it’s really impressive,” John Hutchinson, lead author of the study and professor of evolutionary biomechanics at RVC, told Sky News.