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.

Sea Animals

American eel American eel
Anguilla rostrata
top speed 3.9 km/h
feels like 7 km/h

barracuda barracuda
Sphyraena argentea
top speed 44 km/h
feels like 66 km/h

Blue Whale Blue Whale
Balaenoptera musculus
top speed 50 km/h
feels like 3 km/h

bluefin tuna bluefin tuna
Thunnus orientalis
top speed 70 km/h
feels like 63 km/h

Bottlenose Dolphin Bottlenose Dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
top speed 35 km/h
feels like 21 km/h

California Sea Lion California Sea Lion
Zalophus californianus
top speed 21.6 km/h
feels like 17.7 km/h

Chinstrap Penguin Chinstrap Penguin
Pygoscelis antarcticus
top speed 32.3 km/h
feels like 85.5 km/h

Common Octopus Common Octopus
Octopus vulgaris
top speed 40 km/h
feels like 96 km/h

Emperor penguin Emperor penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri
top speed 7.5 km/h
feels like 11.2 km/h

flying fish flying fish
Cypselurus californicus
top speed 56.5 km/h
feels like 203.4 km/h

Gentoo penguin Gentoo penguin
Pygoscelis papua
top speed 36 km/h
feels like 92.6 km/h

Great White Shark Great White Shark
Carcharodon carcharias
top speed 40 km/h
feels like 15 km/h

Humpback Whale Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
top speed 27 km/h
feels like 3.4 km/h

killer whale killer whale
Orcinus orca
top speed 48.3 km/h
feels like 15 km/h

King penguin King penguin
Aptenodytes patagonicus
top speed 8 km/h
feels like 16 km/h

mako shark mako shark
Isurus oxyrinchus
top speed 50 km/h
feels like 32.1 km/h

sailfish sailfish
Istiophorus albicans, platypterus
top speed 110 km/h
feels like 66 km/h

Sea Otter Sea Otter
Enhydra lutris
top speed 9 km/h
feels like 12 km/h

striped marlin striped marlin
Tetrapturus audax
top speed 81 km/h
feels like 41.7 km/h

swordfish swordfish
Xiphias gladius
top speed 97 km/h
feels like 83.1 km/h

Tiger Shark Tiger Shark
Galeocerdo cuvier
top speed 32 km/h
feels like 15.4 km/h

wahoo wahoo
Acanthocybium solandri
top speed 77 km/h
feels like 69.3 km/h

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