It will surprise very few to hear that the fastest animal on land is the cheetah, which can accelerate from 0 to 50 mph in just three strides and reach a jaw-dropping top speed of 68 mph soon after. Covering 25 meters a second, there are precious few moments between spotting a cheetah and being in its grasp.
While there is no undisputed winner in the race beneath the waves, the fastest sea creatures appear to be marlins, a group of sail-finned fish that are prized by deep sea fisherman and whose agility and ferocity were immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Marlins use their speed to catch prey, rounding up schools of fish with bursts of speed up to 68 mph and thrusting their saber-like jaws into the trapped masses. Their speed is especially impressive considering that water is 1,000 times as dense as air.
For flying animals, which are six times quicker than terrestrial ones, the title-holder is the peregrine falcon, with a measured top speed of 186 mph (the product of a vertiginous downward dive). In terms of horizontal flapping speeds, the fastest bird is the large, aptly named swift, which propels itself to 105 mph in level flight (albeit a record that needs verifying). The common pigeon is nothing to sneeze at either, having been clocked at 92.5 mph.
