gselias@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Skaff Elias) (11/14/90)
I know very little about the anatomy and means of locomotion of large land animals. My question is: Can a rhinoceros walk backward? And if so, does it require training to do so? (I'm under the impression that it is impossible to train a rhinoceros to do anything.) So, can a trainable animal like an elephant walk backwards. (i.e. Is one physically able to?) I think that elephants have a significantly different method of walking than rhinoceri. It seems to me that it would be hard or impossible for a crocodillian or a long tailed lizard to walk backward, but horses can be made to back up. So although I specifically want to know about the rhinoceros, my full question is: which animals are able to walk backward, and what about their anatomy or style of locomotion allows them to do so? Skaff
pamela@bu-bio.bu.edu (Pamela Hall) (11/14/90)
This is not going to answer your question, it's really only an aside. I had a filly once that just loved to trot backwards, never trained her to do it as far as I could tell. I always wondered if she could canter backwards, too. But to canter backwards seemed more than her brain could handle, and she could already trot backwards very, very fast! Waiting for the real answer. Pamela Hall
jespah@milton.u.washington.edu (Kathleen Hunt) (11/22/90)
From: gselias@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Skaff Elias) *which animals are able to walk backward, and what about their anatomy *or style of locomotion allows them to do so? I am a bit puzzled by this question. All quadrupeds can back up, as far as I know. I have seen elephants, horses, dogs, cats, and deer definitely back up, but not very fast, and as soon as they could stop or turn around, they did so. I would think that all quadrupeds can at least back themselves out of a tight place (say, a bunch of trees or thick bushes) that they have gotten into accidentally. Whether they can back up rapidly, as a "gait", is a different question -- is this what you were asking? (I was fascinated to hear about that horse that trots backwards!) I would suspect that animals with burrows and dens would be especially well suited for rapid backing. I once studied the rhinos at the Brookfield Zoo, and I am trying to remember if I ever saw them back up. If only I'd been paying attention! I suppose I could just call up the zookeepers and ask -- you could try this too. Call up your local zoo and ask if they have rhinos and if so, can you speak to a rhino keeper. My main memory of the rhinos is of them gallumphing toward me because I was holding some bread for them. No -- wait! My other memory of the rhinos is of their filthy way of marking their territory, in which they BACK UP to a wall and spray feces and urine all over it while twirling their tails. So they can at least take a few steps backwards. It just occurred to me that I can't recall ever seeing a bird walk backwards. (Just because I can't recall it doesn't mean it can't happen, though!) Seems to me that when I've seen a bird get into a tight spot in whichh a quadruped might choose to back up, the bird will jump up and fly, instead. This might not be true for birds that scrounge around in very small, tunnel-like areas under fallen leaves, though, like the Winter Wren for instance (_Troglodytes troglodytes_, "Underground Dweller"). Kathleen Hunt