Extreme Olympians

Every time that the Olympics comes around, it invites comparisons between human athletes and animals - how fast a cheetah can run, how far a kangaroo can jump, things like that.  Which got me thinking - just as some of our human athletes seem almost superhuman in their abilities, are their animal counterparts?

Many humans can swim, but few us could swim the way Michael Phelps can.  Many of us can tumble around a little, which is nothing compared to how Simon Biles can move.  Are there individual animals which outpace their conspecifics to such a dramatic degree?  Top speed for a cheetah is 60-70 miles per hour, and they can only hold that speed for about a minute.  But that's what we say an average cheetah can do.  Is there some super cheetah out there who can run 80-90 miles per hour, or can hold it for a much longer distance?  Are there individual animals which are just much stronger, faster, and otherwise more capable than others of their species?

Nor is this all idle amusement or speculation.  We base our exhibit designs and husbandry around the physical abilities of the animals.  Or at least what we assume the normal abilities are.  A lion may be able to jump a distance of 30 feet, so a moat that's 40 foot wide should contain them, right?  Well what if you have the Olympic gold medalist of lions, who just so happens to be able to jump 45 feet?  This isn't even taking into account that, like humans, animals under extreme duress or pressure can perform physical tasks far beyond what they normally could do (think of the stories of people lifting cars to help save folks trapped underneath).

I once heard someone say that no one had ever taught a gorilla bodybuilding techniques, so we don't know how strong one is actually capable of becoming.  Not that I'm advocating giving barbells to gorillas - they'd probably cause all sorts of trouble with them - but it does raise an interesting point.  In some ways, the only thing more impressive than what we know our animals are capable of is the potential of what they could be capable of.

Photo Credit: Getty Images, Hasan Akbas