In 1993, Javier Sotomayor did what nobody can repeat to this day: he jumped over 8 ft
in height. But to become the absolute champion Javier would have to jump onto the Eiffel
Tower. Confused? I can understand! Let me explain.
Looking at the average human, you can’t help but wonder: how in the world did this
soft and, let’s be fair, clumsy-looking creature even get to the point where we all
rest now? We certainly aren’t the apex predators here. We aren’t the fastest runners, ask
cheetahs about that. We can’t properly swim or fly, we don’t succeed even in climbing,
but somehow, we’ve climbed to the top rank of nature itself. But we certainly didn’t
jump up there. You think jumping – you think something
like a kangaroo. These animals don’t even walk – they hop. But, boy, are they good
at that! They can speed up to 44 mph over short distances and on distances over a mile
they will outpace the best human athletes that ever lived. All thanks to their mighty
legs, but some can also use their thick tails as a third leg to launch them high up. Kangaroos
can jump over two average people standing on top of each other.
You know Shaq? There is a mouse that can jump well over his head in one hop and it’s a
kangaroo mouse. In a way, it’s even cooler than what a kangaroo does because it’s tiny!
The kangaroo mouse owes its name to the big Australian brother, because it also moves
by jumping on the two hind legs. When it jumps 9 ft high it jumps 10 times its own body length!
It can change direction however it wants with every leap. Good luck catching this one!
Moving on to the ocean – dolphins are the best jumpers here. They can jump 10 ft over
the surface of the water, and there is a chance you’ve seen it in a dolphinarium at least
once. The cool thing about dolphins is that since they live in water, they have no need
to jump like that. They do it for sport and just for the fun of it, just like us.
Some animals may become champion athletes simply because they live beside nasty and
always hungry beasts like lions or cheetahs. Impalas certainly do, and they can leap over
a small bus. Add this to the fact that they run pretty fast, and you get the idea behind
that initial leap – it keeps impalas safe. And Lions themselves are no joke either. Even
my cat can jump right on the fridge to get to the yummy treat. Double that height–
this is how high a lion can jump. Thing like that really makes you hope you never get to
be in poor impalas’ hooves. Mountain lions are even jumpier, though. When
you have to leap from cliff to cliff and you need to catch something like a mountain goat
for dinner, you know your whole life depends on every single jump you make. Mountain lions,
also known as Cougars and Pumas have to hop high – 20 ft high to be precise. Basically,
that means a puma can jump over giraffe’s head. Now that’s some hgh hoppin’!
Yet when it comes to long jumping – there are too many cheaters! They cheat, because
they sorta can fly or glide. Even fish do that – a flying fish can jump up above the
water and use its fins to fly for over 40 seconds straight. Flying squirrels can glide
over a football field at once. And even flying snakes can do that by launching themselves
off the trees and slithering through the air in an S shape for over even longer distances.
My judgment on that – gliding is totally banned in this competition.
It may seem that if you would jump like a frog can, you would be able to hop onto the
Statue of Liberty easily. But here is a catch – we think frogs are good at hopping because
they jump really far, not high. When it comes to distance it’s around 40 to 50 times their
body length. The absolute leap-master though is American bullfrog, which can jump over
7 ft. A frog-human superhero would jump over the whole wingspan of a Boeing 747 with this
ability! If I learned something from cartoons, it’s
that you should never try to catch the road runner. You’ll go over the cliff and splat
in the canyon every time. But I also learned that rabbits are excellent at jumping. White-tailed
jackrabbit, in particular, is one of the mightiest jumpers you can ever meet. The best recorded
hop this fluffy long-eared pal ever performed would make it land right on top of a giraffe’s
head. Even mountain lions would learn to respect that. If a predator needs a concentrated leap
to give its best jump, rabbits would do that any second as soon as they’re startled.
And if I learned something else from cartoons – rabbits are easily scared! Except for
Bugs Bunny. Not scared that one. Grasshoppers can make all of the previous
contesters run for their money. Ever seen those catapults they use for legs? That’s
their musical instrument, but most importantly it’s a jumping machine capable of launching
them from any danger. I really didn’t want to get to this scary
part, but spiders jump too. And the worst thing – they can live everywhere. If you
want to assure your safety from them – go to Antarctica. But seriously, they are harmless
and extremely tiny, and kinda cute looking things. Their legs aren’t powerful — they
can just expand like pistons, launching them up over 50 times their own length. It’s
like having boots with springs in them! Jumping spiders sure know how to have fun. “Barking”
spiders are another thing entirely.[fart sound] But still, it’s nothing next to a froghopper.
This tiny insect jumps straight up 27.5 in, which is 100 times its body length. Among
the insects, it’s the jumpiest it possibly gets. Kangaroo with this kind of hopping power
would jump on the Great Pyramid of Giza. Let’s just say, human athletes definitely don’t
stand a chance beating that. But there is one contestant that can still
fight for the title of the best jumper in the world. A flea. It jumps only 10 in high,
but for something that small it’s as if a person could jump over a 250 ft tall building
— or the Eiffel Tower. Its long legs allow it to jump 200 times its own body length,
and lift objects 150 times heavier than the flea itself.
Fleas are more like space rockets than insects, because while they launch into the air, they
go through a lot more acceleration force than a rocket does when taking off. And just like
astronauts, they can’t go on for a long time even if a tiny hole appears in their
sturdy armor. Overall, fleas are yucky, but in the jumping record charts, you need to
give credit where credit is due. They are the best jumpers in the whole world!
But trap-jaw ants can surprise even a flea. Not in how far and high they can jump, but
how fast. For an outside observer it will seem like a trap-jaw ant just disappears in
a fraction of a second. In reality, trap-jaw ants can open their jaws 180 degrees, store
a lot of energy inside their head and then – snap! When in danger, a trap-jaw ant aims
its head downwards, and launches itself up in the air. Faster than a speeding bullet!
Tiny plankton copepods are even more impressive than that, though they too play a bit dirty.
While living in water, they still jump through it, because being so tiny under the pressure
almost bans you from conventional swimming. Fortunately, copepods have more than capable
legs. They launch them forward with the velocity of 1,000 times their body length per second.
It’s one of the most powerful movements ever recorded in the whole animal kingdom.
I guess it would still have to come out of the ocean to beat a flea in this competition,
but in the water, it has no equal. I don’t know about you, but this whole topic
is making me kind of jumpy. Yes I said it. Hey, if you learned something new today, then
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