One of the matter of death or survival in the natural world is Speed. The fastest land animals in the world listed below are all either prey or predators, and it’s their speed that gives them either life or death in the wild. The list looks at all land animals worldwide, with six of these top ten fastest land animals endemic to Africa.
This list of the fastest land animals in the world simply looks at the top recorded speed of a species and ranks them counting down ten to one.
This context reveals the full list of the top 10 fastest land animals in the world:
10. AFRICAN WILD DOG
These African wild dogs are impressive in their successful hunt percentage of over 60% a result of their speed and stamina, amongst other things. They can sprint at 66 km per hour in short bursts, and run for longer distances at 60 km per hour.
9. KANGAROO
Kangaroos are large marsupials found only in Australia and some New Guinea islands. Their long, strong back legs and muscular tails are made for speed, and they’ve been recorded hopping at 71 km per hour in short bursts, considerably faster than their cruising speed of around 25 km per hour.
8. GREYHOUND
Greyhounds belong to a family of hunting dogs called sight-hounds and have been bred over hundreds of years to become the fastest dogs in the world, with a recorded top speed of 74 km per hour.
7. HARE
This animal has long and powerful hind legs that help it to reach speeds of up to 80 km per hour to evade predators in its grassland habitat. Similar in form to common rabbit, hare has longer ears and live solidarity or in pairs above ground, hence the need for its speed.
6. BLACKBUCK
The blackbuck is also known as “the Indian antelope”. It is found across southern Asia in India, Nepal, and some forests of Pakistan. The Blackbuck is able to maintain its top speed of 80 km per hour for over 1.5 km, helped by its huge strides of 6.5 meters. Because of the male’s impressive horns, blackbuck is sadly a popular trophy animals for hunters.
5. LION (LIONESS)
The only member of the big five animals to make this list of the fastest land animals, the lion is the fastest big cat in the world with a top speed of 80 km per hour. Like the cheetah, the lion can only manage their top speed for short bursts, meaning they need to stalk close to their prey and work as a team to ensure a successful hunt.
4. WILDEBEEST
There are two sorts of wildebeest that appear in East and Southern Africa; those are:the blue wildebeest and black wildebeest which are both surprisingly fast for their size. Their build lends them to endurance running rather than sprinting, which helps them in their epic continual overland migration.
3. SPRINGBOK
The springbok is a smallish gazelle that lives in herds across southern Africa. Aside from their speed which they can maintain only for short distances their special skills are 3 meter high bounce like jumps, and sharp turns whilst running at pace, enabling them to shake off chasing predators.
2. PRONGHORN
Ranging from Canada to California the pronghorn is not only the second fastest land animal, but also has the stamina to run at pace over long distances, with the ability to run at a maximum speed of 56 km h for 6 km.
1.THE CHEETAH
The cheetah can accelerate from a standing start to over 95 km per hour in 3 seconds. The cheetah top speed is around 120 km per hour by far the fastest land animal in the world, streets ahead of all other wild cats, and the fastest running animal. This fast speed is limited to very short bursts, however, with cheetahs able to sprint at top speed for around 60 seconds only. Cheetah spend more time in the air than on the ground while running after a prey, …so they’re the fastest animal on land, but not actually on the ground too much when sprinting!
Let’s note that if we have looked at ranking speed of the fastest animals in the world including both (land, sea, and air); the cheetah would not even make the top ten, due to the many birds like Falcon, frigate bird,goose, … that can move faster.
