What is the fastest animal on Earth?

Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we begin today's adventure, a big hello to Theodore, who asked how the Peregrine Falcon gets so fast, even faster than a car. This one is for you, and a hello to your sister Annabelle too.

If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

Now, Finn, close your eyes and imagine falling from the sky.

Whoa, okay, I'm imagining it. It feels pretty windy.

You are dropping so fast that the wind is roaring in your ears like a hurricane. The ground is rushing up to meet you, and you are moving at a mind-bending 389 kilometers per hour.

389 kilometres per hour? That's 242 miles per hour. That's faster than a Formula One race car on a straight track.

Exactly! Today we are answering Theodore's brilliant question and exploring the ultimate speed champions of the animal kingdom.

Haha, so buckle up, keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle, because things are about to get really, really fast.

We are going to look at the fastest runners, the fastest fliers, and uncover the secret biology that makes these animals faster than some of human history's greatest machines. When you hear the phrase, fastest animal on Earth, what is the first creature that pops into your head?

The cheetah, definitely. I mean, they are the speed kings of the African Savannah. I've seen videos of them running down gazelles.

You aren't wrong about them being fast. A cheetah can go from 0 to 96 kilometres per hour in just three seconds.

Three seconds? That's literally as fast as a sports car.

How do they accelerate so quickly? They have special adaptations, like semi-retractable claws that grip the dirt like running spikes, and a flexible spine that acts like a spring. Oh, so every time they bound forward they cover a lot of ground. A huge amount. In a single stride, a cheetah can cover seven whole metres.

Seven metres in one step. That's about the length of one and a half cars parked end to end.

Yep, in just three of those massive strides, a cheetah hits top speed, maxing out around 120 km per hour, or 75 miles per hour.

But wait, if they only go 120 kilometres per hour, how do we get to that crazy 389 km per hour you mentioned earlier?

Because the cheetah is only the fastest animal on land. To find the true, absolute fastest animal on Earth, we have to look up. Up into the sky? Is it a bird? It is a bird of prey called the peregrine falcon. They live all over the world, from tall city skyscrapers in New York to wild mountain cliffs.

I've seen pictures of them. They have blue-grey backs, barred white tummies, and little dark masks over their eyes.

Exactly. But they don't reach their top speeds by just flapping their wings in a straight line.

Oh, I bet I know. Theodore asked about this.

Do they dive? They do. It's a special hunting dive called a stoop. And that stoop is what makes them the undisputed speed champions of the entire planet. Picture this! A peregrine is soaring high up in the sky, sometimes more than a mile above the ground.

That is so high.

What are they looking for? They are scanning for a meal, like a pigeon or a duck flying far below. Their eyesight is unbelievable. How good is it? Like, can they read a book from far away? Even better. Their eyes are shaped like tiny telescopes, supported by a special ring of bone, letting them spot a single pigeon from over three kilometres away.

No way! That's like seeing a tiny moving speck from across a whole town.

And their eyes can process movement incredibly fast. Humans process about 50 flickers of light per second, but falcons can process up to 129 flickers. So they see everything in slow motion. Exactly. So when they lock onto their prey, they fold their wings back tight against their body to reduce air resistance.

Like a torpedo?

Exactly like a feathered torpedo, or a teardrop shape. Gravity takes over and they just plummet toward the Earth.

This is where they hit 389 kilometres per hour.

Yes. In 1999, a researcher named Ken Franklin attached a computer chip to a falcon named Frightful and measured her diving at exactly 389 kmh, or 242 miles per hour. But wait, if they are falling that fast, how do they breathe?

That is the genius of it. I mean, if you stick your head out of a moving car, the wind punches you in the face and you can't even catch your breath.

Exactly! At 389 kilometres per hour, the air pressure rushing into a falcon's nose would literally burst its lungs. Burst their lungs? So how do they survive the stoop? They have a secret weapon inside their nose. If you look closely at a peregrine falcon's beak, right inside their nostrils there is a tiny cone-shaped bone.

A tiny bone? What does it do? It's called a tubercle or a baffle. When that 389 kilometre per hour wind blasts into their nose, this tiny cone acts like a shield. Does it block the air completely? No, it redirects it. The cone forces the rushing air to spin in a spiral. This swirling motion slows the air pressure down by about 25%.

Wow, so the air slows down just enough for them to breathe safely while falling like a rocket?

Exactly. They also have special membranes that cover their eyes like clear safety goggles so they don't dry out in the wind.

Nature thought of everything. But wait, how do humans know about this nose bone?

Because this biological trick is so brilliant that human engineers actually copied it. Wait, really? What did we copy it for? Cars? Supersonic jet engines! In the mid-20th century, jet engines needed to breathe air too. But at super high speeds, the engines would stall and stop working.

So scientists put a cone in the jet engine, just like the Falcon's nose.

Yes, they designed inlet cones for jet engines, pulling the exact same trick the peregrine falcon's tubercle does. Nature did it first, millions of years ago.

Haha, that is the coolest thing I've ever heard. Theodore was right, they are built like a machine.

But here is a wild twist for you, Finn. The Peregrone only holds the record when it's falling with gravity.

Wait, what about when an animal is just flying normally? Like a flat horizontal line without gravity helping.

For a long time, scientists thought a bird called the Common Swift was the fastest in level flight, clocking in at around 111 kilometres per hour. That's still pretty fast. That's highway speed for a car. But in 2016, a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Germany decided to track bats in Texas.

Bats? But bats look so floppy when they fly, they just zigzag all over the place.

That's what everyone thought. The researchers caught seven female Brazilian freetailed bats and glued tiny radio transmitters to their backs. Like little bat backpacks. Sort of. Then they followed the bats using an airplane to track their exact speed in the night sky. And how fast did the bats go? They tracked these little mammals hitting speeds of 160 kmph, or 100 miles per hour, in perfect level flight.

160 km per hour? That completely crushes the bird record.

It shattered it. They weigh only 12 grams, which is about as much as a walnut, but their long, narrow wings turn them into absolute speed demons.

So the cheetah rules the ground at 120, the bat rules the level flight at 160, and the peregrine falcon rules the dive at 389.

Exactly! And the amazing thing is, the bat does it entirely with muscle power, while the falcon uses gravity. Alright Finn, it's quiz time! Are you ready?

Okay, my brain has warmed up. Let's do this.

First question. What is the fastest animal on Earth during a dive? Next one, what is the name of the Falcon's high-speed hunting dive? Question three. What shape are the tiny bones inside the falcon's nose? Here's number four. What vehicle's engine was inspired by the falcon's nose? Last question. What animal is the fastest in level horizontal flight?

Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is the peregrine falcon. For question two, it's called a stoop. Number three, the answer is they are shaped like tiny cones. Question four, supersonic jet engines. And the final answer is the Brazilian freetailed bat.

Wow, I am never going to look at a bat or a falcon the same way again. Right?

Imagine having a nose that inspires jet engines.

If you enjoyed learning about the fastest animals on Earth, please scroll down and tap the five stars for a review and tell us which animal is your favourite.

And make sure to follow this show wherever you are listening, so new episodes turn up on their own. Oh, and we have sister shows too. History and philosophy is not boring, and maths is not boring. Go give those a listen and a follow as well.

Want your name on the show like Theodore and Annabelle? Send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

See you next time on Science Is Not Boring. Bye, everyone. Bye.

What is the fastest animal on Earth?

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes

Transkriptvom Podcast bereitgestellt · Zeitmarken springen hin