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You can run, but you can’t hide from the fastest animals on the planet.
We are counting down the top ten most extreme speed freaks in the world and
comparing them to human attempts to race their way into the record books.
Strap yourself in because you are in for a wild ride when you travel to
Earth is a planet of extremes.
Earth is a planet of extremes.
Extreme places and extreme animals.
But some animals are more extreme than others.
Join us as we count down to find the most unusual and the most
extraordinary╔
On The Most Extreme.
Our countdown begins deep in the jungles of Central America.
The basilisk may not look much like an athlete, but if this Lizard gets a
fright it can really move.
But this is no ordinary sprinter.
The basilisk is number ten in our extreme countdown because it can walk
on water.
It may take a miracle for a human to walk on water, but the basilisk relies
on the laws of physics.
For a start, the basilisk doesn╒t walk, it sprints at over 11 kilometers
per hour.
And running on water requires some special footwear according to
biological educator Paul Horn.
They have these modified scales on the bottom of their feet.
And if you look very closely, you can see the dark little spots.
Those are modified to grab little parcels of water to be able to float
them over the top of the water very briefly holding onto the surface
tension.
And there is not very many animals that would be able to pursue an animal
that is able to do that.
So that╒s quite amazing.
So long as the basilisk moves fast enough, it can run over the surface of
the water as if it were solid ground.
Anyone who slap their hand on water knows how hard it can be.
For centuries people have been trying to find ways of walking on water like
the basilisk.
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the first to put his mind to the task.
Unfortunately, he was too busy painting to test his design.
Five hundred years later someone finally got around to making them and
they were hardly worth the wait.
Even when you are up a creek with a paddle you are still no match for a
basilisk.
If we wanted to copy the basilisk, we╒d have to grow feet the size of
open umbrellas and take 20 steps a second.
But walking on water is hard work.
It╒s an escape tactic adults leave for the young and energetic.
While older lizards may prefer swimming to running, our next
contender is also extremely fast, not under water, but underground.
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch number nine in our
countdown.
And today, that╒s exactly what╒s happening in the Australian town of
Crows Nest, for today is race day.
This parade is for the support crews of the most unusual racing animal in
the countdown.
It╒s the worm.
The highly trained racing worms of Crows Nest are subject to rigorous
veterinary examinations and then it╒s off to the track.
Worm racing is simple.
First one out of the circle wins.
Worm racing has a lot of advantages according to race organizer Jeff
Close.
We╒re very proud of our little worms.
They are friendly little fellows and kids can race them and they don╒t bite
and they don╒t bark.
And so we╒ve gone for worm racing.
This year╒s winner was said to have come all the way from Egypt.
But you don╒t have to travel to exotic locations to find champion racers.
The masters of limbless locomotion live right under our feet.
Worms are number nine in our extreme countdown, because they are the
fastest thing on no legs.
Worms have to chew themselves a tunnel.
How would you like to eat your own weight in dirt each day?
And who needs legs when you live in a burrow.
Worms just need tiny bristles to grip the wall as they push themselves
through the soil.
And earthworms can travel fast.
Fifteen meters per hour may not sound very extreme, but you try wiggling
that far without using your arms or legs.
But another kind of worm has started burrowing through cyber space.
And it╒s so fast, it can race around the world at the touch of a button.
A computer worm is a kind of virus that travels at extreme speed, thanks
to email.
And when it burrows into a hard drive, terrible things can happen.
One of the most infamous was the ╥I love you╙ computer worm.
Hurtling through cyber space, this worm took only a few hours to travel
from Asia to America.
And while the real racing worms of Crows Nest may lack the speed of their
computer counterparts, they can still hold their heads up high.
For an animal with no legs, they show extreme speed.
Although some will never be quick enough for the ╥early bird.╙
We╒ve sped past the first two contenders, but as the competition
heats up, we╒ll smash all the records.
There is no escape from frighteningly fast fish on our race to number one on
The Most Extreme.
At number eight in the countdown is an animal that has to run for its life.
The hare has an impressive track record of extreme speed.
It has to be fast, just to survive.
But how fast is the hare.
How would it stack up against the fastest human athletes?
If the hare entered the Olympics, they╒d be chasing human sprinters that
could run at 35 kilometers per hour.
But that╒s no problem for the hare.
The hare can hit a top speed of more than 70 kilometers per hour, which
would mean it would win the Olympics 100 meters in a time of just 5
seconds.
Such extreme speed would be useful in another famous race.
A hare running at full throttle would be able to keep pace with the horses
running in the Kentucky Derby.
So how can hares run so fast?
After all, horses and humans have much longer legs and much more muscle.
Well, for any competitor, extreme speed comes from two things: How fast
you move your legs, and how long your stride is.
The hare carries much less body weight than either a horse or a human, so its
muscles can push its body much further every jump it takes.
The hare is also extremely flexible.
This means it can maximize its stride length by stretching out those
powerful back legs and then bringing them up in front of its chin.
That╒s how the sprinting hare covers the ground so much faster than we do.
Each hop can cover almost twice the distance down the track.
The extreme speed of the hare can get them out of all sorts of trouble, but
they are still a whole lot slower than the next animal in the countdown.
We╒ve raced through three animals on our way to find the most extreme speed
freak on the planet.
But coming up, we╒ll discover there is only a fraction of a second between
the quick and the dead.
That╒s next on The Most Extreme.
So just who is the fastest draw in the west?
For the cowboys of the wild west, extreme speed was the difference
between life and death.
It only takes two tenths of a second for the fastest gun slingers to draw
and shoot.
But the cowboys have competition.
This is one of the fastest claws in the west.
But you won╒t find the Mantis Shrimp walking the main street of some dusty
western town.
This varmint hides at the bottom of a fish tank.
The mantis shrimp is number seven on the countdown because it╒s a real
sharp shooter.
It doesn╒t pack pistols, but it uses clubs to knock its opponent senseless.
Those front legs move as fast as a speeding bullet and cause about as
much damage according to Australian Museum Scientist Dr. Shane Ahyong.
The strike of the mantis shrimp is one of the fastest known animal movements.
It╒s completed within about 5 milliseconds, which is 5,000th of a
second and that╒s faster than the eye can see.
It╒s been measured to approach that of a small caliber bullet, so the power
is quite remarkable.
If you are a crab, any chance you have to escape from a mantis shrimp is to
run before it sees you.
But it╒s not just crabs that suffer at the hands of a mantis shrimp.
Anybody who has tried to pick up a mantis shrimp quickly learns why it╒s
nick-named the thumb splitter.
And it╒s even got a reputation for destroying expensive aquariums.
But, believe it or not, the mantis shrimp still isn╒t the fastest claw in
the sea.
That honor belongs to its cousin, the snapping shrimp.
It╒s not as big and dangerous as the mantis.
But it╒s quicker on the draw.
The snapping shrimp is armed with one huge claw.
In the past, people assumed that when the ends of this claw click together,
it created the snapping noise from which the shrimp got its name.
But the snapping shrimp has a secret weapon.
When scientists took a closer look at the snapping shrimp╒s incredible claw,
they discovered the snapping noise wasn╒t caused by the pincer slamming
together.
When the shrimp closes its claw, it shoots out a jet of water that move so
fast, it creates an air bubble in the sea.
When this cavitation bubble implodes, it creates a massive shockwave and a
loud ***.
The snapping shrimp uses this shock wave like a stun grenade to knock its
prey out cold.
So how would the fastest claw in the sea compare to the gun slingers of the
wild west?
It╒s time for a showdown at the okay corral.
The snapping shrimp is almost 100 times faster than the best gun slinger
in town.
The world╒s top athletes would try just about anything to win a gold
medal.
They╒ve got hi-tech suits, scientific training regimes and space-age shoes.
But what they really need is a pair of these legs.
The ostrich is the fastest thing on two legs.
Sure it may look a little ungainly, but the ostrich would leave our
fastest athletes in their dust.
At 80 kilometers per hour, they are more than twice the speed of our
fastest Olympic sprinters.
We╒d need mechanical assistance just to keep up.
An ostrich runs as fast as an Olympic sprint cyclist.
Ostriches belong to a group of flightless birds called ratites.
All ratites have long legs built for speed.
After all, they can╒t fly away from danger.
Humans could never run like an ostrich without some extreme surgery,
according to Mike Archer from the Australian Museum.
What will we have to do as humans to keep up with these gigantic fast
running ratites?
What if we wanted to catch them or eat them or whatever, get out of their way
if they are predators?
We╒d have to redesign ourselves fundamentally.
We╒d basically have to give ourselves shrimpy little warty arms that would
sort of dangle up in front of our chest, little bitty things, we╒d have
to get rid of all these big muscles at the top and put all the effort on the
thigh bones, thunder thighs.
Human sprinters already have thunder thighs.
Their bulky leg muscles are made for powerful acceleration.
But they can only maintain top speeds for very short distances.
Long distance runners are much leaner and meaner.
Their skinny legs have muscles that can work for a long time.
But they generate slower speeds.
The ostrich is the perfect athlete.
Its leg muscles combine the strength of a sprinter with the stamina of a
marathon runner.
The ostrich can maintain twice the speed of the best human sprinter for
half an hour.
But the ostrich╒s long legs have another use.
These birds are also the undisputed dancing champions of the Savannah.
Although not everyone is so impressed by the male╒s sexy legs.
But one of the ostrich╒s ancient cousins reached even scarier speeds.
It╒s interesting to realize that although most of the ratites or the
giant flightless birds evolved in the southern hemisphere, different groups
on different continents, some were also evolving in the northern
hemisphere and one of these groups that actually developed from whales
was called diatryma.
It was a very large bird, very, very rapid running bird, probably the
biggest bird of its time, that was capable of outrunning and eating
horses.
The horses of course in those days were about the size of dogs.
So it was possible to gobble a few without suffering indigestion by the
end of the day.
While modern horses may be safe from the extreme speeds of the ostrich,
this bird could still give them a run for their money.
In a straight race, the two legs of the ostrich are a couple of kilometers
per hour faster than any four legged thoroughbred.
So it╒s no wonder people once tried racing on bird power.
Even with those amazing legs, the ostrich still only finished number six
in our countdown.
That╒s because coming up next, we╒ll discover that speed kills.
And what deadly assassin lives inside these shells?
Fine out next on The Most Extreme.
These marine biologists are on a fishing trip with a twist.
They are trying to catch up with one of the fastest fish in the sea by
towing a specially baited camera.
At this speed, no ordinary fish could keep up.
But the mako shark is no ordinary fish.
The ultimate underwater predator has extreme speed.
It╒s ten times faster than the best Olympic swimmer.
And that╒s why the mako powers in at number five in our countdown.
It can swim at nearly 50 kilometers per hour, which is faster than we
could sprint on dry land.
We can╒t swim as fast as a shark because we don╒t have the muscles
driving the sideway sweeps of that enormous tailfin.
But we can copy its design.
This is the new sport of fin swimming.
With the help of an artificial shark╒s tail attached to their feet, fin
swimmers generate much more power.
And this results in a 70% increase in their speed through the water.
But another part of the shark╒s body has also come in handy according to
Eric Forssmann of the Long Beach Aquarium.
Here I have a sample of shark skin from a long fin mako.
If you run your hand along it in this direction, it feels fairly smooth.
This is the way the water is going to run along here.
On the other hand, if you run your hand backwards, it╒s rough and rough
enough where many years ago before we had traditional manmade types of sand
paper, people such as carpenters could use shark skin to sand wood down, the
rough edges of wood.
But the shark also manages to swim faster thanks to its sandpaper skin.
The scales on the skin serve to channel water over its body.
This reduces the friction between the scales and the water.
So the shark swims faster.
And now, so can we.
All you need is a swimsuit made from a synthetic replica of shark skin.
It╒s covered with a series of tiny channels that can reduce drag by as
much as 10%.
That╒s a big advantage when gold medals are won and lost by just tenths
of a second.
We may be able to copy the shark╒s skin and tailfin, but we╒re still a
very long way from swimming as fast as a shark.
It╒s that extreme speed that makes sharks so fascinating and so deadly.
But believe it or not, there is another predator in the sea that can
kill you quicker than a shark.
You can find number four in the countdown lurking in tropical waters
around the world .
It╒s an animal that moves really fast.
For a snail, it may look harmless, but hiding inside that shell is a deadly
assassin.
For this is a cone snail.
It╒s a hunter that stalks its prey with a poison dagger.
The cone snail is number four on our countdown because it stabs with
extreme speed, but it injects a deadly poison that moves even faster.
If you could travel with the poison inside the fish, you would see it
speeding straight to the nervous system.
The poison molecules jam the nerves, stopping the signals responsible for
moving muscles.
It means the fish is completely paralyzed.
And all this happens in a fraction of a second.
But fish are not the cone snail╒s only targets.
These innocent looking shell fish are wanted for 70 deaths around the
Pacific.
A US marine based in Gram was posing for a photograph with two cone snails
when both simultaneously struck him in the neck.
He died in just 4 seconds.
We╒ve raced past killer snails, speedy sharks, and ostriches in overdrive.
But coming up is the fastest thing on four legs.
That╒s next on The Most Extreme.
These people are heading to Foothill College in California to watch an
extraordinary athletics event.
Today, track records will be broken.
But it will take a law enforcement officer to measure the extreme speeds.
These competitors have a natural advantage for they come equipped with
sophisticated footwear and they are extremely aerodynamic.
The athletes running today are cheetahs.
They are competing in a race to raise money for the cheetah conservation
fund.
Their extreme speed will also raise more than a few eyebrows.
That╒s because the cheetah is the fastest thing on four legs.
It╒s three times faster than the best human sprinters on the planet.
In fact, the cheetah╒s specifications are more like that of a racing car
than a track star.
It can go from zero to over a hundred kilometers per hour in less than four
seconds.
The cheetah really is a high performance racing machine.
It has to be quick, because out on the African Savannah, the cheetah has a
taste for fast food.
It╒s the cheetah╒s advanced engineering that gives it the edge.
Its engine is powered by an enlarged heart and lungs and air cooled by the
largest nostrils in the cat family.
Its chassis is lightweight and flexible to ensure the greatest stride
length possible.
And cheetahs are the only cats that always have their claws fully
extended.
That╒s because they need all the traction they can get as they race for
food.
We could learn a lot from the cheetah╒s design.
We may not be able to grow bigger hearts or lungs, but we can improve
our footwear to help us run faster.
That╒s what Mario Lafortune does at the Nike Sport Research Lab in Oregon.
We are collecting information about the motion and motion of their foot
with respect to motion of the legs.
When we are talking about sprinter, we know that in the first 30 meters per
second, they have to build up from a zero velocity to 12 to 13 meters per
second.
And all of the propulsion takes place under the fore part of the shoe.
Therefore, we are positioning the cleats there such that they move and
they can really apply a lot of force that is going to accelerate them to
run faster and faster.
Back at the cheetah grand prix, people are waiting to find out which cat is
the fastest.
Sharkey is the favorite for this year╒s meeting.
But Zulu will be pushing for pole position.
No one knows the form of the two racers better than trainer Don Simus.
Sharkey is larger, so it has a longer stride.
Zulu is shorter, we always expect her to be slower, she always does better.
And I think it╒s ╘cause she╒s lower to
the ground.
As an incentive, the world╒s fastest mammal chases something small, fast
and colorful to guarantee maximum speed.
First on the starting line is Zulu.
80 kilometers per hour is a disappointing speed.
Can Sharkey do better?
At 107 kilometers per hour, Sharkey is the winner.
And his reward is the same as the first Olympians.
Back in ancient Greece, the Olympics were a little different to today╒s
competition.
For a start, all the competitors raced in the nude.
The Greeks believed that clothes just got in the way.
That╒s why the word gymnasium comes from the word ╥gymnos,╙ which is Greek
for naked.
And the naked athletes didn╒t compete for lucrative sponsorship deals.
The winners received nothing more than an olive branch and a free dinner of
meat.
And while Sharkey also dined on meat, our next contender feeds on speeds
that blow all competition out of the sky.
To reach extreme speeds, you have to take extreme risks.
Spiraling down to earth with only gravity to assist you, it╒s possible
to reach speeds of 160 kilometers per hour.
But you might as well be standing still compared to the speeds reached
by the animal hurtling in at number 2 in the countdown.
It╒s the peregrine falcon.
Diving at 320 kilometers per hour makes it the fastest animal in the
sky.
Most parachutists are happy they don╒t dive like a falcon.
After all the lower speed means they can open their shoot and not have the
impact rip their shoulders off.
But peregrine falcons don╒t slow down, until they hit something.
Midair collisions are devastating for anything that takes to the sky.
Airplanes and birds just don╒t mix.
In America alone, collisions with birds cost airlines an estimated $500
million a year.
No wonder people take extreme measures to reduce the problem.
Commercial airports and air force bases have recruited a special breed
of fighter to patrol their airspace.
Meet Tom Stephen.
He╒s not the pilot.
He is the ground crew for a real top gun.
Brook the peregrine falcon.
Brook and Tom create no fly zones around airports.
Their job is to clear the area of flocks that cause bird strikes.
But Brook isn╒t a killer.
She has been trained to attack Tom.
And we lure fly the falcon, we get it to dive at that effigy of a bird with
meat tied on it.
And they repeatedly stoop at it, they dive at it and the birds in the area
see that, they know that falcon is working and is hungry and so they
leave.
This demonstration of power is enough to scare the local birds into the
middle of the next county.
Brook really does have the right stuff.
But not even Brook can keep up with the number one animal on our
countdown.
We╒ve seen the nine contenders.
They are the best of the best.
Only one animal moves faster.
It╒s number one and it╒s coming up next on The Most Extreme.
You can find the most extreme speedster almost anywhere on earth.
It may be the fastest thing on six legs, but it still can╒t outrun St.
Louis Zoo Entomologist Jane Stevens.
Tiger beetle.
The tiger beetle is a pocket rocket.
The fastest insect on earth and probably one of the most ferocious.
Tiger beetle has got the name probably because they╒re predacious in many
ways.
I╒ve seen adult grab a hold of things as a tiger would and sometimes the sit
and wait posture as tigers might do.
The tiger beetle uses its incredible eyesight to pick out a target.
Then, it takes full advantage of its extreme speed to run down its prey.
So just how fast is a tiger beetle?
If you put a tiger beetle on a race track, it would sprint at the same
speed as a human out for a brisk walk.
Now 8 kilometers per hour doesn╒t sound very extreme, but imagine if it
was the same size as a human.
It would take only half a second to win the 100 meter sprint.
To catch a beetle moving at over 480 kilometers per hour, we╒d need a drag
racer.
But there is a problem with being the fastest sprinter on the planet.
Tiger beetles run so fast, they go blind.
Watch a tiger beetle hunting and you╒ll see it sprint and stop, then
sprint and stop.
Those enormous eyes work well when the beetle sits still.
But once the beetle starts running, its eyes can╒t process information
fast enough to see its surroundings.
The tiger beetle is the number one most extreme sprinter on the planet.
Because it╒s literally running blind.
Imagine what it must be like to be a tiger beetle.
When you sit still, you can see perfectly.
But then you take off and you have to search your surroundings again.
Locked on to your target, you take off and your eyes just can╒t cope.
You go blind until you stop, search and start again.
This is an extremely unusual way of hunting.
But when you move as fast as the tiger beetle, you have to find some extreme
solutions.
No wonder this is the number one sprinter in our countdown.
After all, when it comes to speed, the tiger beetle really is The Most
Extreme.