Which animal can't jump?

Elephants have many admirable qualities: They have an excellent sense of smell, rarely get cancer and have complex social lives. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, they can't jump.

It's hard to say why that is, largely because scientists haven't specifically studied why elephants can't jump. But it's likely because of the animals' enormous heft, and because they have relatively weak leg muscles and fairly inflexible ankles, said John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in London.

Moreover, the animals seem unable to go faster than 15 mph (about 24 km/h) when they run, the researchers wrote in the study. Hutchinson has also observed that when adult and baby elephants run, they do not go airborne. That means that they always have at least one foot on the ground, he said.