fastest animal

[123Herpatology]

I wonder what the fastest animal is distance:weight ratio? I know that the cheetah is fastest on land, the peregrine falcon is fastest overall, and the sail fish is fastest in water.

[victor]

Wow…I thought that short fin Mako is the fastest in the sea…:lol:

[123Herpatology]

def. sailfish…can reach speeds of up to 60 mph under water

[Darby]

Don’t trust that stuff – those speeds come from anecdotal guesses made many years ago my anonymous folks who got them printed somewhere and, over time, they’ve become "common knowledge."

Just think about what it would take to systematically calculate a wild animal’s top speed…and do it enough to be trustworthy…

[+R@cY]

Yes, I remember hearing that those animals were the supposed "top" that we know of. But I think that there are other animals faster than that in the world. We’ve just yet to discover them. 😀

[him19912003]

i think the fastest animals on the ground is Africa dog

[him19912003]

the other thing is every kind of animals have their top speed, when they are in dangerous, their top speed appear, it probably faster than the speed which they are using for getting some food.
Thus, it is hard to compare.

[victor]

not Cheetah? I think cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has the fastest speed on the ground (up to 100 km/h) and also fastest acceleration (0-100 km/h in about 3,5-4 seconds)
I read it from wikipedia..:mrgreen:

[damien james]

I am not sure about distance:weight, but for like distance:physical size, it could be something like common flea.

[hbeing]

if you say about fastest organism,i say bacteria is the fastest.imigane it moves at vry fast speed with cough nd causing flu to as many people as it can.

[James]

I thought it was the tiger beetle. They can run upto 5mph and are only a few cm in length.

[David George]

I am not sure but considering distance the wolf can cover larger distances at a good speed[30-35 mph] but a cheetah has to halt after a short chase.

[James]

Tiger beetles run faster than their brains can process the information from their eyes and they thus go blind. They have to stop, wait, and then continue.

[MrMistery]

that doesn’t have only one cause. They may run fast, but invertebrate nerve fibers lack a myelin sheath so the transmitting is slow. by the way they don’t have a brain

[victor]

quote hbeing:

if you say about fastest organism,i say bacteria is the fastest.imigane it moves at vry fast speed with cough nd causing flu to as many people as it can.

Yeah, true…just like estafet. sooo many of them and depending on windspeed…
You know..I think it’s kinda like comparing a race between a rabbit with a thousand turtles….:lol:

[Ryu]

quote damien james:

I am not sure about distance:weight, but for like distance:physical size, it could be something like common flea.

Yeah, if distance is not taken into consideration the flea would be the fastest by far.

As for fish… it’s too hard to say with any real certianty because there are too many variables and they are constantly changing. Plus the ocean is just too under researched to provide any concrete data.

[Dr.Stein]

We need to make a race for the candidates 😆

[CHSStudent]

What if u put every animal in a Totaly controled enviroment?

Which would win then?

My bet would be the Cheetah…

😀

[ShadowBlade]

quote CHSStudent:

What if u put every animal in a Totaly controled enviroment?

How would you put a falcon in a controlled environment for its diving speed?
They dive way faster then a Cheetah moves.

The previous posters are right though. Comparing the speed to size is the question. The flea’s bodylengths per second is far greater then a cheetah’s.

If you have say, a 5 ft. cheetah, (Yes, that’d include part of the tail). Then for it to travel at 35 bodylengths (175 ft.) a second, it would need to run at ~120 mph. Which it can’t. And a flea definately jumps over 35 times its BL a second.

‘Spittle’ bugs are even better then fleas. They accelerate into a jump at over 400x the force of gravity. But fleas, only 130+. They are darn fine jumpers.

[James]

quote MrMistery:

that doesn’t have only one cause. They may run fast, but invertebrate nerve fibers lack a myelin sheath so the transmitting is slow. by the way they don’t have a brain

They do have a brain. Also, thats not the reason they go blind. Its because they run so fast they dont gather enough photons reflected from the prey to produce the continuous image.

[MrMistery]

i am having a hard time believing that, as we know light moves extremely fast. maybe their eyes are slower…
insects have continously fusing nervous crowdings, not a brain per se. i don’t agree with calling it a brain because of the high degree of independence the rest of the body has from the "brain"

[loveangel]

after things are settled, how about talking about the "slowest" animals???

[jimmystang]

has anyone mentioned the pronghorn?
its max speed is 100 km/hr, which is decent, but it can sustain a speed of 65 km/hr for up to to 10 minutes.

as for the slowest animal, maybe Porifera? 😆

[MrMistery]

slowest animal? the ones that don’t move. porifera, some clams, mussels etc

[sachin]

Sea urchin????……

[Dr.Stein]

Slowest animal is corals 😆

[sachin]

quote Dr.Stein:

Slowest animal is corals 😆

Do they move… ❓

[Dr.Stein]

Of course they move 😉

[Bugz]

Slowest animal is sloth?

[MrMistery]

neah.. the sloth moves a lot compared to corals and such..

[Bugz]

😳 sorry…I thought coral is plant…

[Dr.Stein]

It’s okay. My friend thought coral is stone 😆

[sachin]

quote Dr.Stein:

It’s okay. My friend thought coral is stone 😆

Was it me? Doc? 😕 ………….. 😆

[Dr.Stein]

Are you my friend? No, you are my private assistant especially for calculating… Well, I can say you are my calculator 😉 😆

[MrMistery]

sachin, you thought corals are stone? 😆

[sachin]

quote MrMistery:

sachin, you thought corals are stone? 😆

Ya when I was in 1st year degree, But till I was wandering that these cretures can Move 😯

quote Dr.Stein:

Are you my friend? No, you are my private assistant especially for calculating… Well, I can say you are my calculator 😆

Human Automated Calculator (HAC) 😆

Hows that "HAC"..?

[Dr.Stein]

SACH = Special and Automatic Calculator for Human 😆

[sachin]

quote Dr.Stein:

SACH = Special and Automatic Calculator for Human 😆

8) 8)
😆 😆

[dbscout]

I believe the fastest animal in proportion to it’s size is one of the species of tiger beetle. It runs so fast its eyes cannot process its surroundings and it goes blind. I have heard it described that in terms of weight:distance ratio, the beetle has the approximate speed/acceleration of a top fuel dragster.

[emus are coming]

i dont know if this link will work, cause i havent done enough posts or something so ill copy the good bits…yea it wont work
but the fact that ostriches can move that fast is scary i thought they were bad enough when they stodd still …scary scary birds
Fastest Bird (land)
North African ostriches are both the fastest bird on land—running up to 45 miles per hour—and the biggest, weighing in at 345 pounds.
Fastest Mammal (land)
Cheetahs can run up to 70 miles per hour.
Fastest Mammal (water)
Dall porpoises can swim up to 35 miles per hour.
Fastest Fish
Sailfish can swim up to 68 miles per hour.

[orbit]

I know that you are talking about speed in proportion to body size and weight but I found the following and thought that you might find it interesting anyway 🙂

Animal Speed
(miles per hour)

Cheetah – 70

Pronghorn Antelope – 61

Wildebeest – 50

Lion – 50

Thomson’s Gazelle – 50

Quarterhorse – 47.5

Elk – 45

Cape Hunting Dog – 45

Coyote – 43

Gray Fox – 42

Hyena – 40

Zebra – 40

Mongolian Wild Ass – 40

Greyhound – 39.35

Whippet – 35.5

Rabbit (domestic) – 35

Mule Deer – 35

Jackal – 35

Reindeer – 32

Giraffe – 32

White-Tailed Deer – 30

Wart Hog – 30

Grizzly Bear – 30

Cat (domestic) – 30

Human – 27.89

Elephant – 25

Black Mamba Snake – 20

Six-Lined Race Runner – 18

Wild Turkey – 15

Squirrel – 12

Pig (domestic) – 11

Chicken – 9

Spider (Tegenaria atrica) -1.17

Giant Tortoise – 0.17

Three-Toed Sloth – 0.15

Garden Snail – 0.03

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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