Impressive Speed: How Fast Can Cats Run?

It’s hard to believe, but a cat can run fast and jump high, and if necessary, outperform any person in these indicators.

You've probably seen your pet running around the house, jumping from a chair to a cabinet, over a countertop, or jumping off a bookshelf, but this is child's play compared to what your cat might do in an emergency. A small purring fluffball can outrun the fastest runner in the world even without warming up.

This is the maximum speed of cats

The maximum speed a person can run is about 43 kilometers per hour, a speed only achieved by a few professional athletes who are well trained and in the best condition. The average athlete can run at speeds of up to 35 kilometers per hour, and most of us ordinary people would have trouble running faster than an elephant, which can run at speeds between 16 and 25 kilometers per hour.

However, the average healthy domestic cat - without training, without conditioning, without stretching and without carbohydrate loading - can reach an astonishing speed of about 48 kilometers per hour.

All a cat needs for such an athletic feat is a little motivation, such as chasing prey or running away from a large dog. One might say that this is an unfair comparison: cats have four paws, while humans only have two. This is true, but our legs are much longer, so we should be able to keep up with her pace, however this is not possible.

Four-legged animals use the same “materials” for running as we do: bones, muscles and tendons, which are no different from humans. Obviously, the difference in speed is not how many legs we have or even how fast we can move them, but how much muscular force our legs can apply to the ground.

Cats have very muscular paws, as well as very flexible pads that bend and straighten as they run, giving them a huge stride.