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Top 10 List:
The Fastest (Land Based) Animals in the World
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[more Top-10 Lists]
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. It is not on top of 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.
The following maximum speed measurements 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.
| 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