俗話說，體型越大，摔得越慘，現在我們知道了，體型越大，腳底越硬。

Big cats or wolves seem like scaled-up versions of the tabby or terrier sleeping on your sofa. But the proportions do subtly change as animals get larger. For one thing, big animals’ feet are smaller relative to their bodies than are smaller beasts’. But they compensate with physics, according to new research in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. [see: http://bit.ly/cDdbUx]

When we think about animal locomotion…whether it’s walking, running, or just standing around…we usually focus on the bones and muscles in the legs and feet. But for four-legged critters, it’s the footpads that ultimately support the animal’s weight. So scientists [Kai-Jung Chi, National Chung-Hsing University, Republic of China (Taiwan) and V.

Louise Roth, Duke University] decided to take a closer look at these “natural shoes” in different-sized carnivores, including dogs, cats, wolves, leopards and hyenas.

And they found that the relatively smaller footpads of, say, leopards are much stiffer than those of little bitty kitties. Apparently so that the big cats’ feet can handle the stress of the greater body weight. If a tiger’s paws were as soft as a house cat’s, he’d need hippo-sized feet to stand.

It’s said that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. But now we know that the bigger they are, the harder their feet.

—Karen Hopkin

大型貓科動物和狼看起來就像是睡在你家沙發上的等比例增大的斑貓和小獵狗。但是隨著動物體型的增大，他們身體各部分的比例卻不是那么協調。首先，大型動物的腳相對于它們的身體要比小型動物小很多。然而，根據《 皇家學會界面雜志》的最新研究，它們的腳在物理上會有所補償。[參見: http://bit.ly/cDdbUx]

當我們在腦海中浮現動物的運動時，不管它是在走，跑，還是只在那站著，我們通常會注意到它們腿腳上的骨胳和肌肉。但是對于四只腳站立的動物來說，最終支撐它們身體重量的是腳墊。所以科學家們[中國臺灣國立中興大學的開榮志和杜克大學的威.路易斯羅斯]決定進一步觀察這些“天生的鞋”，它們來自不同體積的食肉動物，有狗，有貓，有狼，有豹，還有鬣狗。

他們發現豹的腳墊相對要小，卻比貓的腳墊硬得多。很明顯，對于豹這樣的大型貓科動物來說，它的腳必須要支撐得住更大體重的壓力。如果老虎的爪子像家貓的一樣軟，它就要有河馬那么大的腳才能站得住。

俗話說，體型越大，摔得越慘，現在我們知道了，體型越大，腳底越硬。