Which large mammal is famously unable to jump?

An elephant cannot get all four feet off the ground at once, and the reason is structural rather than a lack of effort. Jumping animals store and release energy in springy tendons and long, angled leg bones. Elephant legs are built as near-vertical columns, which is what lets them carry several tonnes without collapsing, and the tendons are comparatively short and stiff. Landing is the harder problem. The forces involved in absorbing a fall scale badly with body mass, and an elephant coming down from even a small jump would risk shattering the very bones holding it up. The same physics explains why elephants have no true running gait: at speed, they move fast but always keep at least one foot in contact with the ground.

Elephants walk on the tips of their toes, cushioned by a fatty pad in the heel.