• Question: Which animal's heart beats the quickest and the slowest?

    Asked by polkadot8 to John, Del, Catherine, Krishna, Mo Rassul on 12 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Catherine Mansfield

      Catherine Mansfield answered on 12 Mar 2014:


      Generally the heart rate depends on the size of the animal. Smaller animals such as mice and rats have much faster heart rates than larger animals such as dogs or humans.
      The main reason for this is because smaller animals have a higher metabolic rate, for example they are able to move around much faster and therefore use more energy, meaning the cells of their body requires more oxygen and nutrients than larger animals. So smaller animals have a faster heart rate so that more blood is pumped to their cells to provide the oxygen and nutrients.

      I believe that Hummingbirds are thought to have the fastest heart rate at 1200 beats per minute.

    • Photo: Muhammed Rassul

      Muhammed Rassul answered on 12 Mar 2014:


      I am unsure which animal has the lowest heart rate. I know there is a type of crocodile which can have exeptionally low heart rates, and that the blue whale has a low heart rate. The humming bird has the highest I know of.

    • Photo: Adelle Thrower

      Adelle Thrower answered on 12 Mar 2014:


      The hummingbirds heart beats at 1400 beats per minute
      The whales heart beats at about 6 times per minute
      Humans beat at 60
      Some animals heart rates are determined by the outside temperature- for example the wood frog lives in really cold conditions and can actually STOP it’s heart as it freezes then as the weather gets warming and it thaws out the heart starts to beat again- lots of research it being carried out to try and work out the magic of this!!

    • Photo: John Foster

      John Foster answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Usually, but not always, the smaller the animal the quicker the heart rate and the larger the animal the slower the heart rate. The great whale is about 7 beats per minute, whereas the hummingbird is around 1250 beats per minute!

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