The animal is one of a few exceptional creatures that have an extraordinary impact on other wildlife.
Which is why Ellis and his fellow researchers went looking for those other exceptional creatures who have this unusual biological trait.
"Unlike most animals which use their hind legs as a source of power, these exceptional creatures power their run with their forelimbs," Hermanson explains.
The broadcaster, who gave his views on the back of a Channel 4 programme Foxes Live: Wild In The City, said there was no proof that the creatures attack dogs and cats except in "exceptional circumstances".
(When Fellini first saw Ekberg, he experienced "the incredulity one has before creatures of exceptional height, like the giraffe or the elephant". Marcello Mastroianni said she reminded him of a Nazi soldier who had arrested him during the war).
He's singular and unclubby, an exceptional, idiosyncratic actor who feels more like a creature of the late 60s, from a culture that seems at odds with the 21st century.
An exceptional mover, he crouches among the two-dimensional creatures and pushes them along, as if coaxing a pet to come out of its shell.
"I've loved Doctor Who since I was four years old, and I'm relishing the thought of working with the exceptional team at BBC Wales to create new characters, creatures and worlds for the Doctor to explore".
"It's an exceptional window into the past," he said of the creature.
In one of the more exceptional readings of the play, Elizabeth Hardwick describes Hedda as a creature of style, meaning that her distinction lies in her obsessive regard for the way things look.
The much less sympathetic Richard Owen was an exceptional anatomist who never collected a fossil in his life but whose grasp of anatomical correspondence between creatures enabled him to prove a distinct genus of creatures.
