Top 10 fastest animals

Some animals are perfectly designed to be the ultimate speed machines.

Some of these fly through the air, others swim through water and some run on land. Most of the fastest animals are birds so our list below includes a selection of the fastest of all these different types of animals. Here are 10 of the fastest animals in the world.

1- Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon is the fastest bird, and in fact the fastest animal on the planet, when in its hunting dive, the stoop, in which it soars to a great height, then dives steeply at speeds of over 322km/hr. It reaches horizontal cruising speeds of up to 90 kph.

2- Spine-tailed Swift

The Spine-tailed swift is the fastest bird in powered flight, with a top recorded speed of 171km/h.

3- Frigate Bird

The frigate bird speed of 153km/h is helped by having the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird and they are able to stay aloft for more than a week.

4- Spur-winged Goose

The Spur-winged goose is the world’s largest goose and flies at 142km/h.

5- Sail Fish

The sail fish is easily the world’s fastest fish, speeding through the water at 110km/h.

6- Marlin

Marlin can swim at 80km/h, followed by Wahoo at 78km/h and Tunny at 74km/h.

7- Cheetah

The cheetah is designed for running down fast prey and can reach a top speed of 113km/h, three times faster than the top running speed for a human which is about 36km/h.

8- Pronghorn Antelope

The Pronghorn antelope is the second fasted land animal and at 98km/h can out-sprint predators.

9- Blue Wildebeest 

The Blue Wildebeest, Springbok and Thompson’s gazelle can all run at about 80km/h which almost exactly matches the speed of a lion.

10- Brown Hare

The Brown hare’s long back legs enable them to reach speeds of 77km/h, the same speed as their predator the red fox.