Speed of Animals

garden snail

Helix aspersa
length weight top speed (crawling) feels like
3.3cm 12g 0.1km/h 2.7km/h

Garden Snails move by gliding along on their muscular foot, which is lubricated with mucus and covered with epithelial cilia. This motion is powered by succeeding waves of muscular contractions that move down the ventral of the foot. This muscular action is clearly visible when a snail is crawling on the glass of a window or aquarium. Snails move at a proverbially low speed (1 mm/s is a typical speed for an adult). They produce mucus to aid locomotion by reducing friction, and the mucus also helps reduce the snail’s risk of mechanical injury from sharp objects. This means that they can crawl along sharp objects like a straight razor and survive without injury.

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.

Similar Animals

black mamba black mamba
Dendroaspis polylepis
top speed 32.2 km/h
feels like 17 km/h

domestic cat domestic cat
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top speed 48 km/h
feels like 172.8 km/h

Eastern Gray Squirrel Eastern Gray Squirrel
Sciurius carolinensis
top speed 20 km/h
feels like 128.6 km/h

garden snail garden snail
Helix aspersa
top speed 0.1 km/h
feels like 2.7 km/h

gray fox gray fox
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top speed 67.6 km/h
feels like 119.3 km/h

house mouse house mouse
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top speed 13 km/h
feels like 260 km/h

rabbit rabbit
Sylvilagus floridanus
top speed 48 km/h
feels like 192 km/h

roadrunner roadrunner
Geococcyx californianus
top speed 32 km/h
feels like 106.7 km/h

six-lined race runner six-lined race runner
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top speed 29 km/h
feels like 261 km/h

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