Top 10 List:
The Fastest (Land Based) Animals in the World
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Note that this list is for land based animals, so no birds or fish are included.
If birds were included, this list would be mostly those. The Peregrine falcon is universally accepted as the fastest animal in the world. It reaches its top speed when in a hunting dive, the stoop, in which it soars to a great height, then dives steeply at high speeds (200.00+ mph, 322 km/hr). See also the fastest birds list. Birds are not included in this list as I have limited it to just land-based animals (otherwise it would be mostly birds on the list, and not as interesting).
If fish were included, the sail fish (68 mph, see World's Fastest Fish) would be high on this list.
Average Speed v Maximum Speed
The speeds used for the following table are based on measurements recorded over approximately quarter-mile distances. Exceptions are the lion, which was clocked in the act of charging, and the cheetah, which was measured over a 100-yard distance. You may also notice discrepancies between this list and the World's Fastest Mammals which have many of the same animals. This just highlights the difficulties in measuring speed, whether average or maximum speed is recorded, and averaged over what distance.
Many people consider the greyhound to be the second fastest animal. They are said to each average race speeds in excess of 18 metres per second (59 feet per second) or 63 kilometres per hour (39 mph), which would place then just outside the top 10. However, at maximum acceleration, a greyhound reaches a full speed of 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) within the first 30 metres, traveling at almost 20 metres per second for the first 250 metres of a race. The only other animal that can accelerate faster over a short distance is the cheetah, which can reach speeds of 109 kilometers per hour (68 mph) over 3-4 strides from a standing start.
| Animal | speed (mph) |
speed (km/hr) |
notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cheetah | 70 | 113 | In 2009, the Cincinnati Zoo's 8 year-old female cheetah became the world's fastest of all land mammals. Sarah covered 100 meters in a time of 6.13 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 6.19 seconds set by a male South African cheetah named Nyana in 2001. See video |
| 2. | Pronghorn antelope | 61 | 98 | |
| 3. | Lion | 50 | 80 | |
| 4. | Thomson's gazelle | 50 | 80 | |
| 5. | Wildebeest | 50 | 80 | |
| 6. | Springbok | 50 | 80 | |
| 7. | Quarter horse | 47.5 | 76 | |
| 8. | Cape hunting dog | 45 | 72 | |
| 9. | Elk | 45 | 72 | |
| 10. | Coyote | 43 | 69 |
Sources
- Natural History Magazine, March 1974.
- The American Museum of Natural History.
- James G. Doherty, general curator, The Wildlife Conservation Society.
Other fastest animal lists include:
- Top 10 fastest fish
- Top 10 fastest birds
- Top 10 fastest mammals
Slow animals
- top list of the world's slowest animals
Comments
- All of you questioning the list are not thinking. First of all I believe the list covers all attributes of speed (I.e acceleration speed, vel, weight) as far as the clouded leopard goes, I wonder if it's a matter of how fast it accelerates or just having enough recorded info being the species is so rare. I've checked multiple sources all lists are comparible to this one; and it sounds correct to me. (May 2012)
- What about the serval it can run up to 57 mph god (from connor, May 2012)
- my favorite athelete is Usain Bolt,he is 3 second more in 100 metres in favour of chitah (from sonu, May 2012)
- The ostrich is left out of every list i have seen and they have been reported to run up to 45 mph so why has the coyote been listed first? (from Jass Ra'joun, April 2012)
- All you people who think that the grey-hound is not on there is stupid. The Cape Hunting Dog is what they mean by the Grey-hound. (from Peyton Green, April 2012)
- Why aren't Greyhounds on this list? I heard they were the second fastest animals in the world! :S (from Jessica, April 2012)
- Why isn't the Clouded Leopard here? Its top speed is 65mph, making it the second fastest here! (from Random Person, April 2012)
- Sam Whittingham may be the fastest land animal ever recorded. His max spead was clocked at 82.89 mph. He traveled 56.4 miles in an hour time trial. How many birds can maintain that speed for an hour? (from Ryan, April 2012)
- Um may i say the falcon and eagle are easly faster going up to speeds of 80mph to 120mph while the cheatah is 60 and 70mph (April 2012)
- The greyhound @45mph is not even on this list. Do your research before making such elementary claims. (from Kent, March 2012)
- why aren't ostriches on this list? (from Hmancrafter, March 2012)
- I thought spiders where fast but I'm faster by several lightyears (from Chuck Norris, March 2012)
- roadrunner?
- I once thought elephants are the second fastest animal mammal... (from Ebenezer Fiagbedzi (Ghana) Feb 2012)
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Where is the swift, it can reach 240mph (from Drew Rao, Feb 2012) -
- these are just the fastest land based animals - for the swift, see the fastest birds list - ed.
- Wow...I knew cheetahs were fast but that one suprised me LOL (from Ebony mew mew, Feb 2012)
- What was the position of lizard in the fastest animal of the world? In a documentry it was said to be the fastest (lizard). Even more faster than a lion. (from Ishola Habeeb, Jan 2012)