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Although the manner in which four-legged animals walk has been known and well documented since at least the 1880s — they move their left hind leg first, and then the left foreleg, right hind leg, and right foreleg — taxidermists, animal illustrators, and toy designers consistently fail to represent this accurately, the study found.

Gabor Horvath of Eotvos University in Budapest and several colleagues studied some 300 depictions of walking animals in museums, veterinary manuals, and toys and found that in nearly half, the artist had failed to capture the true nature of a beast in stride. (The study limited itself to depictions in which it was clear that the animal was walking, as opposed to trotting or running, which involve different leg movements.)

Horvath and his colleagues concluded that while it was understandable that toy designers frequently err in the depiction of animals walking, there is little excuse for the illustrators and taxidermists who work in natural history museums to make the same mistakes.