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Which animal is the most fit?
NorthCascades
Posts: 10,968 Member
I read this on Wikipedia (so it must be true):
Values have been measured in some other animal species: thoroughbred horses have a VO2 max of around 180 mL/(kg·min). Siberian dogs running in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have VO2 max values as high as 240 mL/(kg·min).
My first thought was "how does a cheetah compare?" followed immediately by "I don't want to be the guy who puts the mask on the cheetah."
For context, the highest VO2max ever measured in a human is just below 100 ml/kg/min, this was a Nordic skier. Those dogs are impressive!
Values have been measured in some other animal species: thoroughbred horses have a VO2 max of around 180 mL/(kg·min). Siberian dogs running in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have VO2 max values as high as 240 mL/(kg·min).
My first thought was "how does a cheetah compare?" followed immediately by "I don't want to be the guy who puts the mask on the cheetah."
For context, the highest VO2max ever measured in a human is just below 100 ml/kg/min, this was a Nordic skier. Those dogs are impressive!
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Replies
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I'd rather be a wolf or puma than any of the above.
Pampered house dog (mid-sized mutt) of a rich, doting family if I had my choice of any animal though...1 -
Monarch butterflies fly from Canada to Mexico in just a couple of months.
That's a lot of cardio!9 -
Cheetahs bonk after a very short sprint, though. That's one of their hunting problems, they have to get really close.
Poor cardio conditioning. Great at HIIT, though!7 -
Instead of measuring cars in horsepower, maybe we should use dog power.4
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cmriverside wrote: »Cheetahs bonk after a very short sprint, though. That's one of their hunting problems, they have to get really close.
Poor cardio conditioning. Great at HIIT, though!
Yup! My kid is obsessed with cheetahs so I am as close to an expert as you can get from reading every kid-appropriate science book on the subject. Basically, cheetahs are all muscle and flexible spines, but it takes a ton of calories to maintain. Plus they aren't good fighters, so they can sometimes catch a gazelle only to have it be taken by a passing lion.
Effectively, it sucks to be a cheetah. The babies are wicked cute though.5 -
I have a colleague that runs the Center for Cheetah Conservation at the St. Louis Zoo:
https://www.stlzoo.org/conservation/wildcare-institute/cheetahsinafrica/centerforcheetahconservati/
I've seen her hand feed a cheetahs and walk around the cage with them. Don't think she's every tried strapping a mask and monitoring VO2max, but I'll ask.7 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I read this on Wikipedia (so it must be true):
Values have been measured in some other animal species: thoroughbred horses have a VO2 max of around 180 mL/(kg·min). Siberian dogs running in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have VO2 max values as high as 240 mL/(kg·min).
My first thought was "how does a cheetah compare?" followed immediately by "I don't want to be the guy who puts the mask on the cheetah."
For context, the highest VO2max ever measured in a human is just below 100 ml/kg/min, this was a Nordic skier. Those dogs are impressive!
I'd think the Siberian dogs in the Iditarod would be among the best overall athletes in the animal world. Great combination of speed, strength, endurance and agility (remember they aren't running pulling the sled over a smooth level surface).
I would compare them to an NFL defensive back/safety. Those guys have the athleticism to compete at a high level in most sports with the exception of long distance events.2 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »Monarch butterflies fly from Canada to Mexico in just a couple of months.
That's a lot of cardio!
And hummingbirds fly 500 miles to the Gulf of Mexico non-stop. That's pretty darn impressive. (According to Wikipedia, a hummingbird in flight has the highest metabolism of all animals.)
They can also fly backwards, which is more than a cheetah can do.9 -
The Arctic tern flies 24,000 miles every year between the northern and southern hemispheres. I think that takes the endurance mark.5
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I don't know about VO2, but I would say a shark. Have you ever tried swimming all day, much less swimming as fast as they do?2
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Great white at that. They can start as far north as Alaska and go down as far south to the tip of South America just on the Pacific coastline alone.I don't know about VO2, but I would say a shark. Have you ever tried swimming all day, much less swimming as fast as they do?
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I don't know about VO2, but I would say a shark. Have you ever tried swimming all day, much less swimming as fast as they do?
Swimming is hard work.
Whenever I've paddled a kayak in salt water, it's made me nervous. I'll notice a seal or sea lion and know I'm in their world and not mine.3 -
Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.4 -
Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.
I disagree. Without our brains we would have been extinct a long time ago
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BruinsGal_91 wrote: »SuzySunshine99 wrote: »Monarch butterflies fly from Canada to Mexico in just a couple of months.
That's a lot of cardio!
And hummingbirds fly 500 miles to the Gulf of Mexico non-stop. That's pretty darn impressive. (According to Wikipedia, a hummingbird in flight has the highest metabolism of all animals.)
They can also fly backwards, which is more than a cheetah can do.
well now.....which one, the butterfly or the cheetah, would win a cage-match fight to the death?0 -
every other animal is hoping for 2nd place......
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Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.
Do you think the sloth is more fit than most humans?1 -
We need to test a gazelle, too. Any gazelle that's alive is faster than the cheetah that was trying to eat it.
I saw a nature documentary once that said a cheetah can run full speed on three legs, and use the other one to trip a gazelle. Their jaws open to exactly the size of a gazelle neck. They can hunt other animals, but if the gazelle ever went extinct the cheetah would follow, they're so specialized.Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.
I wish I knew more about this kind of stuff, because it's fascinating.
We humans are pretty fragile. We're also slow. It's amazing we made it this far, through a past when other animals hunted and ate us regularly. Before we even had fitbits to tell us how fast to run to get away from hyenas!
Apparently we're the best distance runners. A horse will run a faster mile every time, but a human will run a faster marathon. Our ancestors used that to their advantage hunting.1 -
CynthiasChoice wrote: »Do you think the sloth is more fit than most humans?
How long do you think you could hang upside down from a tree branch while sleeping?
Not longer than a sloth, I'm sure. LOL!
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Packerjohn wrote: »Without our brains we would have been extinct a long time ago.
Probably so. Even w/a brain, arguably less adaptable than ours, so went the Neanderthals.
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Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.
You can get a bit of variation in VO2 max if you change your diet.... Eat more like a sled dog. LCD vs higher carb diet.
Diet can offer some advantage if measuring fitness by VO2 max.
From the FASTER study:
http://www.vespapower.com/the-emerging-science-on-fat-adaptation/5 -
VO2 isn't the only important thing. Since humans have the ability to shed heat through sweat and other critters don't, humans are effective hunters. Prey tire before we do.1
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Indeed. I tracked down some eggs and oatmeal just this morning. They can't outrun me.5
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That vicious egg was chilling after a runny start, or some such mixed pun of metaphorical insignificance.5
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Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.
You can get a bit of variation in VO2 max if you change your diet.... Eat more like a sled dog. LCD vs higher carb diet. Diet can offer some advantage if measuring fitness by VO2 max.
From the FASTER study:
http://www.vespapower.com/the-emerging-science-on-fat-adaptation/
A vote for flying pigs!2 -
Even in the best shape, human beings are the least "fit" of all living things by almost any means of measurement or comparison.
Our only "advantage" comes from how we use our brains to overcome our physical deficiencies. Otherwise, we'd be very low on the food chain.
You can get a bit of variation in VO2 max if you change your diet.... Eat more like a sled dog. LCD vs higher carb diet. Diet can offer some advantage if measuring fitness by VO2 max.
From the FASTER study:
http://www.vespapower.com/the-emerging-science-on-fat-adaptation/
It doesn't readily translate into performance in all cases, though, because low carb can impair exercise economy.
Http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/JP273230/abstract
I would give the feats of strength to the blue whale in terms of gross strength. I was fascinated with them as a child.2 -
Ants: The carpenter ant can lift 1,000 times it's body weight. That's the equivalent of a 180lb person lifting a Boeing 747!!! Now that's heavy lifting.3
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