Top speeds of carnivorans?

[LeopJag]

Excuse my ignorance...i'm curious about what are the top recorded running speeds for wild carnivorans based on the most accurate available data? obviously the cheetah leaves all the rest of them in the dust, hands down - but where do the others rank up after it?

[philcoon86]

Time to kick-start the discussion...

My impression is that scholars indeed tend to treat this as an obscure subject matter...I have found it exceedingly difficult to locate journal articles or reputable books dealing with the topic in question.

The following information is from Jerry Kobalenko's book "Forest Cats of North America" (p. 44). I consider it a rather reliable source, as the author is an expert on North American felines and has been thorough in his research, though it was published in 1997 (17 years ago).

Puma (Cougar) - the top speed provided is 45 mph (72 km/h) - just for the sake of comparison, I remember coming across an online source suggesting that the leopard could reach speeds of 80-90 km/h, but this was a long time ago and I cannot remember the exact title.

Bobcat - 30 mph (48 km/h)

American Lynx - 30 mph (48 km/h)

[creature386]

OK, here a little collection of speeds (not necessarily top speeds, but at least something) from "Wild Cats of the World":
Cheetah: 90-128 km/h, the most reliable estimate for a short distance is 112 km/h (p. 23)
Jungle cat: 32 km/h (p. 62)
Sand cat: 30 to 40 km/h (p. 69)
Lion: 48 to 59 km/h (p. 288)
This is only from the pages I can access. I really need to get that book one day (this means in very far future) if I cite it all the time. I am sorry for only posting the speed of cats (like my predecessor did), but I had a quick source that was only about cats.

[LeopJag]

Thanks guys, and welcome, Philcoon - great to see you here!

I've pondered for a while that the cougar's top speed is probably a bit faster than that of the leopard's....it is genetically closer to the cheetah (though that could very well be false regarding in its capacity for running speed) and its hind legs in particular proportionally stronger.

[malikc6]

Domestic cats have also been known to run 30 miles per hour believe it or not.

[Infinity Blade]

Sprint speeds of carnivorans according to Garland & Janis (1993)

Polar bear (U. maritimus): 40 km/h
Grizzly bear (U. [a.]* horribilis): 48 km/h
Black bear (U. americanus): 48 km/h
Coatimundi (N. narica): 27 km/h
Raccoon (P. lotor): 24 km/h
Striped skunk (M. mephitis): 16 km/h
European badger (M. meles): 30 km/h
Grey wolf (C. lupus): 64 km/h
Coyote (C. latrans): 65 km/h
African wild dog (L. pictus): 70 km/h
Golden jackal (C. aureus**): 56 km/h
Gray fox (U. cinereoargenteus): 64 km/h
Red fox (V. vulpes***): 72 km/h
Striped hyena (H. hyaena): 50 km/h
Spotted hyena (C. crocuta): 65 km/h
Cheetah (A. jubatus): 110 km/h
Leopard (P. pardus): 60 km/h
Tiger (P. tigris): 56 km/h
Lion (P. leo): 59 km/h

*It's referred to as U. horribilis in the study.
**It is to my understanding that canid taxonomy is currently f*cked up, and I recall reading something about C. aureus in regards to the matter. I apologize if the name for the animal is not accurate.
***It was referred to as V. fulva in the study.

References:

Garland Jr., T, Janis, C.M. (1993). Does metatarsal/femur ratio predict maximal running speed in cursorial mammals? J. Zool. London.

link

[mechafire]

^I'm a bit surprised that the spotted hyena's sprinting speed exceeded that of all the pantherines and the passed the striped hyena so much.

[Infinity Blade]

I'm surprised at the difference between the spotted and striped as well. What's weird is that both are cursorial, yet only the spotted was faster than the less cursorial pantherines and that the striped was, if anything, slower.

[blaze]

One of the sources Garland and Janis (1993) provide for the speed values is Garland (1983a) which explains the caveats of said speeds.

The data may vary in accuracy for several reasons. Some estimates of MRS are more or less anecdotal or based on limited observations (e.g., estimates for Ursus spp., Panthera tigris, P. pardus, and lagomorphs). It is also difficult to measure the speed of a running animal accurately in the field. Speeds of some mammals (e.g., man, dog, horse) have been timed very accurately during races, but speeds of most large mammals have been estimated from the speedometer of a pursuing automobile. As pointed out by an anonymous reviewer, if an animal and a vehicle travel side by side around a curve, with the animal on the inside, the vehicle must travel faster to keep abreast of the animal. This could lead to (perhaps greatly) overestimating the animal's speed, but many workers seem to have been careful to avoid such a situation. Some large mammals have been filmed while running, and speed estimates from these films are lower than the highest reported speeds for the same species (Alexander, Langman et al., 1977). Most small mammals have been timed with a hand-held stopwatch over a short distance (e.g., Layne & Benton, 1954; Kenagy, 1973). How the motivation to run varies under such different conditions is unknown, and as noted by Taylor (1977, and cf. comments in Heglund et al., 1974; McMahon, 1975b; Alexander, Langman et al., 1977), it may in any case be difficult to determine if an animal is actually running at top speed.

So unless measured in a laboratory, timed in a track, through video or by the use of GPS collars, take those speeds with a grain of salt.

[Infinity Blade]

^Here (1:16), a tiger goes at ~39 miles per hour. This is pretty in line with speed estimates I've been reading for tigers (~35 miles per hour).

[elosha11]

This is incredibly anecdotal and probably not all that reliable, but as a very young kid (like second or third grade) I was riding in a truck with some adults in the country. There was a medium sized, very friendly dog outside the truck. Just a mutt I think, nothing pure bred. It was in the country with long straight roads and very little traffic. We started driving and the dog chased the truck. I couldn't believe how fast it was. It ran alongside the truck on the edge of the road as I watched the speedometer. My recollection could be wrong, but I believe the dog matched the truck up to 40 mph, and maintained a high speed (30 to 40) for a good while, at least a minute or two. Eventually, of course, it got tired and started to fall back but it was really fast.

Lots of factors could make this questionable. My memory could be wrong as to the very top speed, although I'm quite sure the dog well exceeded 30. Of course, I can't vouch for the speedometer's accuracy either. But dogs can really reach and sustain impressive speeds, as can wolves.

[theropod]

Impressive. That would coincide with the maximum speed listed for grey wolves further above.

[coherentsheaf]

Well maximum speed of domestic canids in dog racing is probably a reasonable upper bound for wild canids and we have measured it to be about 70km/h in dog races.

[Infinity Blade]

Is there any data with such a figure that you can post here?

[Infinity Blade]

Wilson et al. (2018)

The 98th percentile of speed was C - 19.9, I - 13.8, L - 13.9 and Z - 10.6 ms^-1 which is 84, 78, 67 and 77% of the maximum achieved by three individuals which were C - 23.8, I - 17.7, L - 20.6 and Z - 13.8ms^-1. So predators were faster than their prey and all species rarely approached their maximum recorded speed (Extended Data Fig. 5).

Supposedly lions can reach up to 20.6 m/s. I assume these must have been females, since it seems that lionesses can run faster than their male counterparts. The 98th percentile of speed for the lions was similar to multiple hunting sequences where lions ran at 13.5 m/s (Sorkin, 2008).

In the hunting sequence, analyzed in this study, the lion attained a lower running speed (10.4 m s^-1) than in the multiple hunting sequences (13.5 m s^-1) analyzed by Elliott et al. (1977; fig. 5), which involved pursuit of wildebeest (the same prey species as in this study), as well as zebra Equus burchelli and Thomson’s gazelle. This could have been due to the predator not having singled out a particular prey individual during the filmed portion of the hunting sequence. Indeed, the hunt appears to have been unsuccessful. Notably, the Thomson’s gazelle attained a much higher running speed (25 m s^-1) in the running sequences analyzed by Elliott et al. (1977; fig. 5c) than in those (14 m s^-1) analyzed by Alexander et al. (1977; table 2). This could have been due to the gazelles being chased by their natural predator (the lion) in the former study and by the researchers’ vehicle in the latter study.

Pasi & Carrier (2003)

Among felids, for example, cheetahs are the fastest runners on the planet, exhibit little sexual dimorphism in body size (Nowak & Paradiso, 1983), and although coalitions of territorial males are known to kill individual male intruders (Caro, 1994), cheetahs are recognized as exhibiting relatively little physical aggression towards conspecifics (Eaton, 1974). In contrast, lions are characterized by fierce male–male fighting and sexual dimorphism in which males are about 35% larger in body mass than females (Nowak & Paradiso, 1983). Consistent with the trade-off hypothesis, lions are not fast runners (particularly males) and can sprint at only half the maximum speed of cheetahs (Schaller, 1972).