Forget cheetahs, peregrine falcons are the fastest animals on Earth

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/17/forget-cheetahs-peregrine-fal.html

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Oblig.:

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[pedantry]
I thought we already knew that

[pedantry]
Well, technically, they aren’t the fastest animals on Earth, they’re the fastest animals above the Earth. I’d imagine they wouldn’t be so fast walking on the ground.
[/pedantry]

[/pedantry]

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Yyyyeeeessss, forget the cheetah, the peregrine falcon is the one you should be worried about. He! He is the fastest, I am but a lowly cheetah, lowly second place…
* jumps on your back and eats you while you’re looking at peregrine falcon through binoculars *

oh, and if we’re doing obligs…

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Yes but a koala’s terminal velocity is faster than either.

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Uh, yeah…

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Since the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning is featured near the end of the video, it’s only appropriate to link to their falcon nest cam.

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Yeah, I can walk way faster than that thing.

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I bet if cheetahs and falcons learned to cooperate they could fuck shut up. Imagine cheetahs dropping from the sky (wearing goggles naturally) right into the middle of a herd of impalas. Chaos!

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Also oblig.:

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It is known.

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cheeta vs falcon, not really fair - 'cause gravity

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So, a few months back, my daughter asked what sound cheetah’s make. I assumed a leopardish roar, but I wasn’t sure. I looked it up. I was quite surprised. Now a cheetah sound is a fun bit of trivia no one I know seems to know about.

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Same here. Ocelot sounds also caught me off guard. I guess I was expecting them to sound more like house cats, at their size.

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Well that’s my TIL for today all set, thanks!

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This reminds me that I read My Side of the Mountain way too many times as a kid:

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This video looks to be of a young bird? Peregrines sometimes end up on the ground, but they’d usually prefer not to be there. I was glad it ended up flying away as this can be a sign of injury of distress. But nope, this isn’t speedy running; maybe as it’s young it didn’t view the camera as threat enough to really book it (not sure how this footage was taken), even if it could go faster?

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Note to all: do not approach a Peregrine Falcon unless you’re okay with getting a falcon body slam to the head and/or a face full of talons. I know from experience!

It is exciting, though.

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Yay! Birds for the win!
Take that mammals :stuck_out_tongue:

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The fastest animal on Earth was Felix Baumgartner, traveling at a speed of 843.6mph without the aid of a vehicle. Take that, peregrine falcon!

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