Fastest animals
This is a list of the fastest animals in the world, by types of animal. The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird, and the fastest member of the animal kingdom, with a diving speed of over. The fastest land animal is the cheetah. Among the fastest animals in the sea is the black marlin, with uncertain and conflicting reports of recorded speeds.
When drawing comparisons between different classes of animals, an alternative unit is sometimes used for organisms: body length per second. The average body length per second in the world is just around 67. On this basis the 'fastest' organism on earth, relative to its body length, is the Southern Californian mite, Paratarsotomus macropalpis, which has a speed of 322 body lengths per second. The equivalent speed for a human, running as fast as this mite, would be, or approximately Mach 1.7. The speed of the P. macropalpis is far in excess of the previous record holder, the Australian tiger beetle Rivacindela eburneola, which is the fastest insect in the world relative to body size, with a recorded speed of, or 171 body lengths per second. The cheetah, the fastest land mammal, scores at only 16 body lengths per second. Body mass can also be used to compare speed between species on a relative basis. Under this parameter the fastest animal for its body mass is the cheetah, followed by the pronghorn.
Through studies of pronghorn running on treadmills, it has been estimated that the maximum speed that could be achieved using mainly oxygen would be 72 km/h for about 10 minutes, so higher speeds such as those reported in Thomson's gazelles, springboks, pronghorn and cheetahs require adaptations for principal use of anaerobic energy sources such as glycogen and creatine phosphate, and could therefore be maintained for only 30-45 seconds when these energy sources are depleted. High acceleration also requires the use of anaerobic energy sources.
Fastest organism
Invertebrates
Fish
Due to physical constraints, fish may be incapable of exceeding swim speeds of. The larger reported figures below are therefore highly questionable:| Animal | Maximum recorded speed | Class | Notes |
| Black marlin | Swimming | A hooked black marlin has been recorded stripping line off a fishing reel at. | |
| Sailfish | Swimming | In a series of tests carried out in a fishing cam at Long Key, Florida, United States, sailfish swam and leapt in 3 seconds, equivalent to a speed of, although this speed includes leaps out of the water, which do not strictly qualify as swimming speed. | |
| Swordfish | Swimming | The figure listed for the swordfish is based on a corrupted version of calculations made by Sir James Gray to estimate the impact speed necessary for a hypothetical swordfish to embed its sword 3 feet in the timbers of ships, as has been known to occur; the figure seems to have entered the literature without question as though someone had actually timed a swordfish at that speed. | |
| Yellowfin tuna | Swimming | Many tuna species are capable of swimming at fast speeds colloquially cited at around. The tails of tuna move fast enough to cause cavitation, which slows them down as vapour accumulates. Tuna have bony fins without nerve endings, which prevents the fish from feeling the pain of cavitation but does not fully protect them from the implosive damage. | |
| Shortfin mako shark | Swimming | Underwater and unimpeded by a fishing line, the Shortfin mako has been reliably clocked at, and there is a claim that one individual of this species achieved a burst speed of. But it is extremely difficult if not outright impossible to get a fish in the wild to swim in a straight line over a measured course. Laboratory measurements of numerous kinds of fishes – representing a wide range of body sizes – swimming against an artificial current have revealed a surprisingly uniform maximum burst speed of about 10 times the body length per second. Thus, for an average-sized, shortfin, its theoretical maximum speed might be something on the order of. Yet some estimates of the top-speed of a shortfin mako are considerably higher. |
Amphibians
Reptiles
Birds
| Animal | Maximum recorded speed | Class | Notes |
| Peregrine falcon | Flight-diving | The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird, and the fastest member of the animal kingdom. While not the fastest bird at level flight, its great speed is achieved in its hunting dive, the stoop, wherein it soars to a great height, then dives steeply at speeds of over. | |
| Golden eagle | Flight-diving | In full stoop, a golden eagle can reach spectacular speeds of up to when diving after prey. Although less agile and maneuverable, the golden eagle is apparently quite the equal and possibly even the superior of the peregrine falcon's stooping and gliding speed. | |
| Gyrfalcon | Flight-diving | ||
| White-throated needletail swift | Flight | The fastest flying bird in flapping flight. | |
| Eurasian hobby | Flight | It can sometimes even outfly birds such as the swift when hunting. | |
| Frigatebird | Flight | The frigatebird's high speed is helped by its having the largest wing-area-to-body-weight ratio of any bird. | |
| Rock dove | Flight | Pigeons have been clocked flying average speed on a race. | |
| Spur-winged goose | Flight | ||
| Red-breasted merganser | Flight | ||
| Grey-headed albatross | Flight | ||
| Anna's hummingbird | Flight | The stated speed equals 276 body lengths per second, the highest known length-specific velocity attained by any vertebrate. | |
| Ostrich | Land | The ostrich is the fastest bird on land, as well as the fastest running animal on two legs. The highest reliably measured running speed for ostriches is, obtained by speedometer reading when a car was chasing an ostrich in a straight line chase to force it to move as fast as it could. Although there are reports of speeds of for ostriches, none are confirmed. | |
| Emu | Land | ||
| Cassowary | Land | ||
| Roadrunner | Land |