This might be a really weird question, but why do Kangaroos jump instead of walk?
As a human jumping takes a lot more energy than jumping, so it must be something biological, but they are like the only animal family that does that (I’m sure there are more kangaroo-like animals I don’t know about)?
Edit – After seeing a few comments, this post isn’t about why the evolved to do so (even though it is an interesting question), I was asking what is the anatomical reasoning for it.
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Kangaroo are actually hopping on their toes. The lever is around their ankle, where some muscles from your knees to your toes are being stretched and pulled back (like that reflex test that the doctor does on your knee ).
Compare with when you run. It’s easier and less tiring to run on your toes than your whole feet. Because the reflex from the muscles use less energy than actively using the same muscles.
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