Affectionately called Lady, this falcon easily surpasses skydivers with speeds of at least 180 mph!
Journalist Steve Leonard ascended 10,000 feet on a hot air balloon, carrying a speedometer and a lure that Lady had been trained to hunt. Steve was buddied up with an experienced skydiver for a tandem jump. They clocked their free-fall velocity at the maximum speed their speedometer could record, they were falling at 150 mph!
The diver’s jumped from the balloon and were then followed by Lady. She caught up to them in a matter of seconds!
They figured she was just playing with them and must have simply accelerated, clocking a speed of at least 180 mph. The TV team, producers of the BBC “Ultimate Killers’ series, acknowledged that this was not a laboratory experiment. Still the demonstration was quite thrilling.
The Peregrine Falcon is one fast animal, and the skydiving competition was like a walk in the park. Lady was in training for 6 years and had 6 months of practice with the lure for this ultimate experiment. These birds are known to reach dive speeds of up to 242 miles per hour. A speed of 150 mph is a lot for a skydiver, but could be just a nice cruise for the peregrine.
When not hunting, this bird will generally fly between 40 and 60 mph. But when diving to catch its prey, the peregrine becomes a deadly predator. Diving at speeds up to 242 mph is possible because of a body structure that allows for specialized high speed flight. A large keel allows for lots of attached muscles, and that equates to flapping power. Its stiff feathers and extremely efficient respiratory and circulatory systems then allow it to flap its wings up to 4 times per second.
The Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus is the record holder for speed. Its dive speed is more than three times that of the Cheetah, the fastest land speed animal.
The birds have some of the fastest types of animals alive but there are some other impressive high speed animals as well. Birds are the fastest animals followed by an insect species, then aquatic animals, and then land mammals, with reptiles taking up the rear.
There is a great fascination with high speed animals, but how fast they actually go is often an estimate. There is a tendency to overestimate the speed of fast animals too, and different sources can be quite variable. These are the best estimates we’ve found to date.
There are all sorts of unique animals in our world, each with its own talents. Visit the Animal-World.com website to learn about the critter of your choice!
Clarice Brough is a team member at Animal-World and has contributed many articles and write-ups.
Photo collage images courtesy of BBC Earth, taken from their Falcon Vs Skydiver – Ultimate Killers – BBC YouTube video seen above.