Are Turtles Fast? How Fast?

If you imagine that turtles are extremely slow, you might be interested to find out they aren’t always as slow as they can appear to be. In fact, the speeds they move at depend on their species. But are turtles fast? Yes, they can be fast, but not usually very fast. In this article, I’ll tell you how fast turtles can actually be.

So, are turtles fast? The answer might surprise you

Yes, although turtles won’t be winning many races, they can be fast. But the speeds they can reach depends on their particular species. For example, when the softshell turtle is agitated, it can run up to 15 mph on land. Plus, turtles are fast swimmers and their aquatic nature makes them faster in water than they are on land. With all this in mind, turtles can be faster than someone would think.

But you might wonder how fast turtles can possibly be

Although most turtles have a walking speed of about 2 mph, they can still reach higher speeds on land. But the Giant Galapagos turtle is the slowest turtle on earth, with the slowest recorded speed of this species being .23 mph. Its average speed is 1 mph. The Giant Galapagos turtle can live to be over 100 years old and this can make it particularly slow and old. Since there aren’t any predators that can hurt it when it reaches maturity, it doesn’t have to go anywhere anyway.

Here’s what makes turtles slow

Firstly, turtles don’t run from enemies or chase food, so they’re not forced to be fast by necessity. Besides this, their biological makeup contributes to their slowness. For one, they can’t move fast because they have a low metabolic rate. Further, they’ve naturally adapted to protect their bones and shells from injuries by having a slow gait. So going slow comes naturally to turtles, but this is why plenty of us humans adore them. The slow gait of the turtle can be fascinating because this unique characteristic is what makes them different from the rest of the animals on earth.

What about the story of Aesop’s fable about the tortoise and the hare?

When I consider the speed of a turtle, I start thinking about Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare. Despite the fact that this story is fictional, it never ceases to captivate me and numerous others. For instance, many people are probably pondering the same question I am: how fast was the tortoise, and could it have beaten the hare in the race if it had tried harder? In accordance with the story, the tortoise was indeed slow.

But the hare fell asleep and this is what helped the tortoise pass right by the hare and win the race. In my opinion, that tortoise was as slow as Aesop made it out to be. For this reason, I think the tortoise couldn’t have won the race if the hare was awake. But the hare did let its ego slow it down and this happens to many humans in real life. So the story of The Hare & the Tortoise is realistic at least to some extent.

Who would win in a race, the turtle or the sloth?

While anyone who read Aesop’s fable knows that the tortoise beat the hare in the race, turtles can realistically race against other animals and win. For instance, if a turtle and a sloth were in a race, the turtle would win. Indeed, turtles are a bit faster than sloths. And if it came to a race between a snail and a turtle, the turtle would win. A snail has one long foot that doesn’t help it move around quickly enough to beat the turtle, but the turtle has four legs that make it easier for it to move around than the snail.

As reported by Treehugger.com, the giant tortoise, three-toed sloth, and garden snail are a few of the top eight slowest animals on earth. Other animals that made this list include the starfish, sea anemone, manatee, banana slug, and slow loris. Not only is the three-toed sloth supposed to be the slowest mammal in the world, but many deem it to be the laziest. On the other hand, Britannica.com reports the cheetah is the fastest land animal on earth. It only takes this big African cat less than three seconds to go from 0 to 60 mph. Some of the other fastest creatures in the world are the horse fly, pronghorn, peregrine falcon, and black marlin.

Are Turtles Fast? Q & A:

• Which turtle species is the fastest? In water, the fastest turtle species can swim up to a speed of 22 mph and this is the leatherback.
• Can turtles go faster in water or on land? – Turtles are faster in water since they can swim 10 to 12 mph. A burst of speed brings them to 22 mph or higher.
• How fast are snapping turtles? – When snapping turtles strike, which lasts for less than one second, they can reach a speed of 174 mph. This speed makes them as fast as a NASCAR car!
• How fast are box turtles? – The speed of box turtles is 0.9 to 0.25 mph, which makes them one of the slowest turtle species on earth.
• What makes turtles run? – Turtles may feel like running if a predator is chasing them or maybe a sea turtle spots water after traveling on land for a while and feels like running. But other than this, turtles simply don’t have a reason to run.
• What causes turtles to gain extra speed? – According to experts, turtles have soft, rubbery shells that actually don’t weigh very much, so this makes the shells easier to carry and run with. Besides this, they have strong leg muscles that work well on both land and in water.