14 DAY TRIAL // An article recently published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE sheds new light on one very important dilemma: why it is that guppies jump.
The researchers who published this study say that, after keeping a close eye on a total of nine male guppies native to the island of Trinidad, they reached the conclusion that their jumping was no more and no less than a way to make sure their species did not remain confined in just one natural habitat.
Live Science quotes researcher Daphne Soares, who argued as follows: “It's like how dandelions spread their seeds all over — original populations give rise to secondary populations.”
“When guppies jump, we think it has to do with this idea of biological dispersal, which refers to a species moving away from an existing population to try to colonize another patch of habitat.”
Apparently, jumping guppies can reach heights that are roughly 8 times that of their body length and travel at speeds of 4 feet per second (roughly 1.2 meters per second).