What Is the Fastest Animal in the World?

This might seem like a straightforward question but it isn't. Are we talking about the fastest animals on land, in the sea or in the air? Many birds can fly at speeds much faster than any land animal can run. Do we want to focus on an animal's top speed over a very short distance or its cruising speed (how fast it can go over long distances)?

For this article, we've broken our list into three categories: the fastest animals on land, sea and air and attempted to note the five fastest in each category. We've indicated both the top speeds and the average speeds in most cases. Conflicting data may make our list somewhat different from other lists on the internet.

Here are the elite members on the list of the fastest animals the world , bearing in mind there are 8.7 million or so species