Animals Faster than Cheetah: Meet 5 Fastest Creatures That Outrun and Outfly the Wild Cat

Growing up in India, our school textbooks always taught us that cheetah is the fastest animal on the planet. Even when we watch wildlife documentaries it always leaves us in an awe that a Cheetah can run at an incredible speed of 120km/hr. But, the official records from the Guinness World Records might tell you otherwise. Cheetahs are holding the title of the fastest animals only if we are strictly talking about land animals. 

The moment you look up at the skies or research about the creatures ruling oceans, you would know that there some animals speedier than a Cheetah. Hereonwards, we are going to learn more about some of the birds and animals faster than the Cheetah. 

List of Animals Faster than Cheetah and Their Speed

First and foremost, let’s take a look at the global leaderboards for the fastest animal in the world and their speeds. In the meanwhile you can take note of how many creatures has outranked the fastest land animal, Cheetah, in the list of top five before we learn more about these creatures speeds and habitats. 

Source: Guinness World Records, National Geographic Society, and BBC Earth. 

1. Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon is the undisputed winner in this list of fastest animals on earth with a lightning speed of 389 kilometers per hour. The bird practically transforms its body into a weapon that can outpace even a fighter jet if both start at the same time initially, as the speed is hard to maintain for long distances. 

To survive this immense atmospheric pressure without exploding lungs, the falcon has evolved specialized, cone-shaped structures inside its nostrils. They execute such speed mainly as a stoop, which is a vertical dive of falcons mainly used during hunting. So, their cone-shaped nostrils are quite helpul in redirecting incoming shockwaves of air. 

2. Golden Eagle

Just like falcons, Golden Eagle  uses its high speed and large wingspan to spot prey from kilometres away. When its vision locks onto a target, it folds its wings close to its body and maintains a speed reaching up to 320 kilometers per hour. A report published by the National Geographic suggest that eagle are masters of using their high-speed momentum to instantly overpower its prey.  

3. White-throated Needletail

While falcons and eagles rely on gravity to reach top speed when they fly downwards, the White-throated Needletail achieves its records flying at a constant height. Researchers have observed that Needletail as one of the fastest birds on earth spends almost its entire life in the air. Meaning, they maintain a speed of 169 kilometers per hour almost in their every flight. 

4. Mexican Free-tailed Bat

Image Credit: Michael Durham via batcon.org

Mammals are typically viewed as slower than birds in the air, except the Mexican Free-tailed Bat. This mammal shatters the stereotypes that mammals can’t fly and when they take flight, they can be faster than many birds. 

A verified study published in Royal Society Open Science revealed that free-tailed bats can reach the maximum speeds of 160 kilometres per hour. Their long wing structure creates exceptional lift with minimal drag when they travel vast distances in search of insects every single night. 

5. Black Marlin

Black Marting gives a tough competition to cheetah’s speed when we compare this land animal with ocean’s creature. They are known to swim through the ocean at a speed as fast as 129 kilometers per hour. This fish features a hyper-streamlined body and a spear-like bill (the upper jaw) that cuts water resistance to near zero. Its powerful muscles generate such intense swimming power that it can easily cut or strip heavy fishing lines.

While the cheetah remains unquestionably the fastest land animal, our ecosystem has many other creatures outpacing the wild cat. The skies and deep oceans harbor predators whose aerodynamic and hydrodynamic adaptations push biological physics to the absolute limits as they easily leave the fastest land mammal behind in this speed ranking list of creatures.