Cursorial

A cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. There are different ways of distinguishing cursorial organisms; for example, they can be distinguished by feeding habits so that a horse is a cursorial grazer and a wolf a cursorial predator. Cursorial organisms are typically adapted to long-distance running at high speeds, rather than animals with high acceleration over short distances; thus, a leopard is considered cursorial, while a cheetah is not. Among vertebrates, animals under 1 kg of mass are rarely considered cursorial, as they typically move in a series of short bursts rather than at a constant speed. All extant cursorial vertebrates are endothermic, allowing high metabolic rates and high endurance, though it is possible some extinct species were ectothermic.