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We all know that eagles can fly, that bats can fly, but did you ever hear about the hippos can fly? Well, sort of!

A team of researchers from the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire have been studying footage of hippos to find out if the hefty herbivores actually take-off when they run.

From their research, published in PeerJ, they discovered that 15% of the time, whilst running at full speed, hippos had all four feet off the ground.

The scientists say their findings are helpful in studying the way larger land animals move, and how it has changed over the years, going back to dinosaurs.

How did the scientists study the hippos?

The researchers came across a number of difficulties whilst studying the hippos, as they tend to be most active at night, spend most of their time in the water and can be quite aggressive when approached.

One of the researchers, Emily Pringle, visited Flamingo Land resort in North Yorkshire, to film the hippos there, as they ran between their stable and the watering hole.

The researchers also looked at footage of hippos running on Youtube and clicked through them frame-by-frame to see if the hippos ever had all four feet off the ground.

The videos showed that the hippos - which can weigh more than 2,000kg - usually trot, which means that they move their diagonally opposite legs in sync, and can get all four feet off the ground.

This is different to other large land animals like elephants, who even when they were closed running at fast speeds, their feet never all leave the ground at the same time.