The fastest animal alive travels less than one kilometre an hour
Rank animals by speed and a falcon wins. Divide by body length and the table turns upside down: a 0.7mm mite covers 321 of its own bodies every second, and a greyhound out-runs a cheetah.
- Period
- Recorded maxima
- Published
- August 10, 2026
- Built with
- Databoat
321.43
body lengths every second — from an animal the size of a sesame seed
Paratarsotomus mite
- Sailfish5.09
- Usain Bolt6.32
- Ostrich12.83
- Pronghorn17.56
- Cheetah22.22
- Greyhound25.93
- Tiger beetle171.23
- Peregrine falcon234.9
- Anna's hummingbird259.62
- Paratarsotomus mite321.43
Left column is raw km/h. Right is body lengths per second. The mite goes from slowest of the ten to fastest, and the cheetah is beaten by a greyhound.
Hover a point
Big animals are quicker in absolute terms. Nothing about being big makes an animal quick for its size.
- Paratarsotomus mite321.43
- Anna's hummingbird259.62
- Peregrine falcon234.9
- Tiger beetle171.23
- Greyhound25.93
- Cheetah22.22
- Pronghorn17.56
- Ostrich12.83
- Usain Bolt6.32
- Sailfish5.09
A tiger beetle covers more of itself per second than a peregrine falcon in a stoop.
Three of the four fastest things here are small enough to sit on a fingernail.
The whole field on one rail, against the fastest human who has ever lived.
Method
Two published numbers per animal — recorded top speed and body length — and one division. Databoat derived speed in metres per second, body lengths per second, the human equivalent if a 1.75m person moved at the same relative rate, and how many body lengths fit in a metre.
The derivation checks out against published figures. The tiger beetle comes out at 171 body lengths per second, exactly the cited value. The mite comes out at 321 against a published 322. Its human equivalent lands at 2,025 km/h, against a widely quoted figure of about 2,092.
One figure does not reconcile, and the reason is worth knowing. The peregrine falcon is usually credited with 186 body lengths per second. Using the midpoint of its published 34–58cm length range, the derivation gives 235. The cited figure implies a length of 58cm — the very top of the range. Both are defensible; body length is a range, not a number, and which end you pick moves the answer by a quarter. Midpoints are used consistently here rather than choosing per animal to match a published result.
Body length is also not measured the same way across taxa — head-and-body for mammals, total length for birds, whole animal for invertebrates. That inconsistency is inherent to the comparison and no amount of arithmetic removes it.
Speeds are recorded maxima under different conditions: a dive, a sprint, a burst. They are not directly comparable either, which is part of why the relative ranking is more interesting than the absolute one.
Fastest animals · Paratarsotomus macropalpis · Cheetah · Peregrine falcon · Anna's hummingbird · Pronghorn · Sailfish
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