They have to have developed the ability to run long distances at high speed for a reason.
My only guess would be wolfs.
Is that it?
It’s been speculated their speed was in response to the North American cheetah. They’re also more closely related to giraffe than true antelope.
I believe we should reintroduce cheetah to North America, but the idea thus far hasn’t garnered much support.
Once upon a time there were very fast predators (like the Cheetah GJ mentions).
Now it’s your car.
Yes, I have heard that as well. I also read somewhere that the Pronghorn is capable of running 40 MPH for almost an hour. That would mean it could complete a marathon in about 30 minutes! Take that, cheetahs!
I have read that pronghorns are the 2nd fastest of all terrestrial animals, I think they max out in the 50s mph.
However, cheetahs can run much faster-- maybe 70. The problem for the cheetah is that it tires sooner than its prey, and since prey is usually not going to let the cheetah get undetected right up on it, and since prey can also change direction quickly, the cheetah does not have all that high a success rate.
By the sight of all the dead ones on the side of Hwy. 287, the colony that lives between Ft. Collins and Laramie must be a very slow sub-species.
Emphasis mine.
The speed limit is 65, right? :dubious:
- And unlike the cheetahs SUVs can keep it up for hours.
No, but IIRC pronghorn sacrifice so much physiologically for their speed and running endurance that they die easily. Cheetahs run faster but lack endurance; humans run slower than either, have high endurance but also don’t drop dead easily; pronghorns combine speed and endurance but at the cost of flimsiness.
I’ve read that the fastest animal over distance on this planet is the Alaskan Husky. They could run down a pronghorn . . . eventually.
The fastest land animal is the turtle. You have to drop it out of an airplane
Ask the guy who lives in middle of the densest population of pronhorns anywhere: me and Natrona county, Wyoming.
Here’s a interesting fact. Pronghorns can jump, but they don’t generally know it. In their natural habitat; the open prairie, there is no need to do so. Contrast that to the whitetail deer of the forests, who regularly have to jump over fallen trees, bushes, etc.
So pronghorns are very confused by barbed-wire fences. They’ll commonly crawl under them, and they can do it real fast. Its looks funny and unnatural. I have, on more than one occasion, startled them into running right into a fence, though. But they can jump, they just don’t know it. Sometimes a few of them figure it out. I have witnessed individuals jumping over a four-foot fence like nothing. Smooth like butter. You’d think more of them would figure it out. “Hey! Look what Max just did! Cool.”
But they don’t. They seem to remember sections of fence with damage or missing lower wires, and will travel long distances to cross at these points. It’s common to see a single pronghorn on one side of a fence, looking very confused, with a group of animals on the other side a few feet away. Like “Hey, how can I get with you guys?”
It hardly qualifies as a land animal if its in freefall.
The American cheetah was actually a type of cougar which converged evolutionarily with its African counterpart.
Jeez, spend the last minute of your life in freefall and you’re no longer a land animal?
They always land eventually.
And while we’re at it, this is another example of where mainstream science fails. The cheetah is actually the second fastest land animal. The hoop snake is faster (but it cheats a bit by using gravity.)
Hoop snakes are all very well, but talking of gravity assist, the predator with the greatest momentum has to be the drop bear.
It’s still a turtle all the way down.
Depends on tree height vs. hill height and incline angle. I still lean towards the hoop snake. 32 feet per second squared, and all that. How high is the tree?