What's it
like to be
an animal?

If you're six feet tall, 10 miles per hour probably doesn't feel very fast. But what if you were just six inches tall, like a squirrel? Relative to the size of your body 10 mph would be quite a bit faster. This site shows the top speeds of animals, and how fast they would be going if they were your size (ie, what their speed feels like to them).

Animals: land air water insect
feet meters
Graph: top speed feels like

Imagine what it's like for a tiny insect to jump and fly as quickly as they do. They might cover 40 body lengths in a second. To a six-foot person that's 164 mph. This site tries to understand how it feels to move like a fly, a squirrel, a cat, a rhinocerous, or a falcon.

Flying Animals

California Condor California Condor
Gymnogyps californianus
top speed 55.9 mph
feels like 36 mph

eider duck eider duck
Somateria mollissima
top speed 70.2 mph
feels like 130.3 mph

frigatebird frigatebird
Fregata aquila
top speed 95.1 mph
feels like 74.4 mph

Gannet Gannet
Morus bassanus
top speed 62.1 mph
feels like 61.5 mph

mallard mallard
Anas platyrhynchos
top speed 65.2 mph
feels like 130.5 mph

pigeon pigeon
Columba livia
top speed 36.7 mph
feels like 97 mph

Red-breasted Merganser Red-breasted Merganser
Mergus serrator
top speed 80.2 mph
feels like 189.3 mph

red-tailed hawk red-tailed hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
top speed 121.2 mph
feels like 175.9 mph

Spur-winged Goose Spur-winged Goose
Plectropterinae gambensis
top speed 88.2 mph
feels like 158.8 mph

White-throated Needletail White-throated Needletail
Hirundapus caudacutus
top speed 105.6 mph
feels like 500.4 mph

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