What is the fastest animal on Earth?

A cheetah runs in Serengeti National Park.

(Image credit: Winfried Wisniewski via Getty Images)

Ask anyone what the fastest animal on Earth is, and they'll probably say the cheetah. But the focus on the speedy feline has stolen attention from other species that go much faster — some three or more times faster than the cheetah. Who are the overlooked speedsters of the animal kingdom?

To be clear, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is undeniably fast. And it is true that it's the quickest animal on land. With documented top speeds of 64 mph (103 km/h), the cheetah easily surpasses other swift animals, like racehorses, to take the title of world's fastest land animal. And some estimates of their top speed are closer to 70 mph (113 km/h), according to the Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute.

A combination of leg length, muscle size and a long stride gives the cheetah the ideal body for running across land, said John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in London. Plus, a 2017 model based on 474 land and marine species, ranging from whales to flies, demonstrated that speed is closely tied to size. Speed increases with size until you reach an optimum. Beyond that optimum, larger animals are slower because they require more energy to accelerate. A cheetah has the optimal medium size for speed, Hutchinson said.

However, cheetahs are only the fastest animals on land over short distances. That's because they don't pursue prey at high speeds for long distances. Their hunting strategy is more about accelerating and maneuvering very quickly, according to a 2013 study in the journal Nature. In essence, their endurance is limited. "Cheetahs, like most cats, aren't pursuit animals," Hutchinson said. No other land species can get to 70 mph, or even 64 mph, but the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) is estimated to reach 60 mph (97 km/h) and can sustain a speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) for miles, according to the book "Built for Speed: A Year in the Life of Pronghorn (Harvard University Press, 2003).

So, while the cheetah deserves its place among the fastest animals on the planet, it gets an undue share of the limelight. One reason for that, Hutchinson said, is that most animals' speeds haven't been studied thoroughly. The speeds of racehorses, cheetahs, greyhounds and camels have been measured carefully and repeatedly; researchers even verified that the animals were fully exerting themselves, he said.

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Donavyn Coffey is a Kentucky-based health and environment journalist reporting on healthcare, food systems and anything you can CRISPR. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired UK, Popular Science and Youth Today, among others. Donavyn was a Fulbright Fellow to Denmark where she studied molecular nutrition and food policy. She holds a bachelor's degree in biotechnology from the University of Kentucky and master's degrees in food technology from Aarhus University and journalism from New York University.