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 90 km/h
feels like 57.9 km/h

eider duck eider duck
Somateria mollissima
top speed 113 km/h
feels like 209.7 km/h

frigatebird frigatebird
Fregata aquila
top speed 153 km/h
feels like 119.7 km/h

Gannet Gannet
Morus bassanus
top speed 100 km/h
feels like 98.9 km/h

mallard mallard
Anas platyrhynchos
top speed 105 km/h
feels like 210 km/h

pigeon pigeon
Columba livia
top speed 59 km/h
feels like 156.2 km/h

Red-breasted Merganser Red-breasted Merganser
Mergus serrator
top speed 129 km/h
feels like 304.7 km/h

red-tailed hawk red-tailed hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
top speed 195 km/h
feels like 283.1 km/h

Spur-winged Goose Spur-winged Goose
Plectropterinae gambensis
top speed 142 km/h
feels like 255.6 km/h

White-throated Needletail White-throated Needletail
Hirundapus caudacutus
top speed 170 km/h
feels like 805.3 km/h

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