Original subtitles

Rich Kisseloff loves spending a day in the woods with his friends…

…on a two-wheeled adrenaline-fueled ride.

Let's go, guys. Let's go.

Supercharged by a breed of dog called a Greyster.

Greysters have been around for maybe 50 years or so.

And what they are is a… a pinch of greyhound

mixed in with a German short-haired pointer, an English pointer,

and a couple other breeds as well.

These animals were born to run.

Come on!

When I break the harnesses out, they just start going crazy.

The easy bit is attaching them to the scooter.

The tricky bit is holding on.

Dog scootering is a competitive sport involving one or more dogs in a team.

Going through the trails, it's just an awesome feeling,

being at one with your dog, and they love it.

Greysters are a naturally-athletic breed

that can run at 20 miles per hour for five miles.

No other animal can run at this speed, exerting this power,

and expending this energy for so long.

So what's their secret?

It starts with their skeleton.

Dogs don't have collar bones connecting their shoulders to their ribs,

so they can stretch their front legs further to maximize their stride length.

And for the long-legged Greysters, that can be a staggering 16 feet.

You will see big legs, big hind quarters,

big chest, big muscled dogs.

They love running in general. It's bred into them.

There's nothing more that they wanna be doing.

We typically train dogs starting at the age of about nine months to a year.

Training 'em with directions, commands,

making sure your dog passes another dog without initiating a fight,

or tangle, or something like that.

Gee! Gee! Gee!

Typically, we say "gee," right, "haw," left.

Basically, the commands that they used to use in the old days

when handling carriages and stuff like that. And so it… it's connection

between you and your dog, 'cause you're working as a team.

You're on a clock, so you're trying to navigate the course as fast as you can.

It's a little bit of excitement and danger all in the same time.

Rich's most experienced teammate is Guinness.

Guinness is a special dog ever since he was a puppy.

Nothing fazes him.

Other dogs don't faze him.

He just… He just runs and runs and runs. He's a special dog.

Greysters are super efficient at absorbing and using oxygen.

This is measured as VO2 max.

And Guinness' is the envy of human athletes.

The VO2 max of Greysters is in the elite level of VO2 max for dogs,

and that's anywhere in the 200 range, I believe,

versus a human, who's in the 70's or 80's for an elite athlete.

This huge difference between us and dogs is due to their mitochondria.

These are the powerhouses of every cell in our body,

converting the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat into energy.

Compared to humans, Guinness has nearly twice as many

of these cellular batteries.

Good boy. Aw.

Yes.

So impressive is this canine endurance,

that the U.S. military is funding research into replicating it in frontline soldiers.

While the Pentagon looks into the science, Rich and Guinness are simply loving life.

Scootering is something anybody can do.

You can do it with any dog. You don't have to race or anything like that.

You can just take your dog out and get exercise.

And you get exercise as well.

And it's a great thing to get out on the trails

and enjoy life with your dog.

Good boy, Guinness.

Good girl.

All of our pets survived for thousands of years in the wild…

…without any help from us.

And this has led them to develop astonishing athletic abilities…

…which we sometimes take for granted.

Meet Cam, a much loved one year old golden hamster.

But don't be fooled by the chubby body and tiny legs.

Cam is one of the supreme endurance athletes of the animal world.

Every day of his life, he pursues an insatiable instinct

because this little chap is an ultra long-distance runner.

At his top speed of four miles per hour,

he's making 600 strides a minute.

That's four times more than the fastest racehorse.

And he can keep this up in fits and starts for up to an hour each day.

To understand his extraordinary athleticism,

we need to take Cam back to his ancestral homeland.

Golden hamsters originate from the dry and rocky Syrian steppe,

a harsh environment where food is scarce.

But hamsters have fast metabolisms

and need to eat twice their body weight in food every day.

Which means almost constant foraging.

Hamsters like Cam will clock up an average

of five miles every 24 hours.

This wild instinct to keep moving has been retained.

If Cam's wheel was super-sized up to the scale of the London Eye,

he'd make it fully turn 19 times a day.

So make sure you keep your hamster's wheel well oiled…

…or you'll never hear the end of it.

When it comes to peak performance,

speed isn't necessarily of the essence.

In Tokyo, this longevity dwells on the mind of Mitani-san.

He's the proud owner of Bonchan, a sulcata tortoise,

his companion for 25 years.

When he arrived he was tiny and could sit in my hand.

But things have changed.

Bonchan is now a whopping 154 pounds.

Originating from the deserts of Africa,

sulcatas are amongst the largest tortoises on earth.

And this one means the world to Mitani-san.

Bonchan likes to walk.

When it gets to three or four o'clock, he tells me he wants to get out.

While most pet tortoises live in gardens,

Central Tokyo isn't blessed with green spaces.

So Mitani-san has found another way to exercise Bonchan.

Being inside can be stressful even for humans.

That's why I decided to take him out.

When I walk with Bonchan, I don't have to think about anything,

and I feel very peaceful.

He lives at his own pace.

I've learned from Bonchan to relax and be laid-back.

In the desert, sulcata tortoises will walk

five miles a day

and dig shelters 25 feet deep.

All that with a heart rarely beating over six beats per minute.

Let's face it, the tortoise's ticker is the envy

of ultramarathon runners everywhere.

But while Bonchan can easily cope

with a quarter of a mile stroll around the block,

the only things slowing him down are his many admirers.

Because I walk him so often,

the neighbors are used to him,

but when people see him for the first time, they are surprised.

Bonchan will live long

because he has less stress,

and I try to remove any of his worries.

Bonchan's pampered life and low heart rate

aren't the only secrets to his longevity.

Recent research has shown that giant tortoises rarely get cancer.

Incredibly, when their cells get damaged, they self-destruct.

This bodes well for Bonchan, who could live to be over a hundred.

But it leaves Mitani-san with a problem.

I know I won't live longer than him.

So I am looking for someone to look after him.

If I pass away,

I want someone to love Bonchan even more than I do.

Tortoises' powers of endurance aren't just great for surviving on Earth.

At the height of the space race,

the Russians blasted two tortoises to the moon.

They accomplished one orbit before crash-landing in the Indian Ocean.

Remarkably, they survived unscathed,

making them the first creature to travel to another world.

More impressively, on their journey,

they reached speeds of up to Mach 33,

making them the fastest tortoises in history.

We've already met the masters of endurance.

And these guys can certainly endure

a few hours of doing nothing.

However in California, a couple and their cat buck that trend.

Meet Mav, not your average cat.

He's a three year old Bengal belonging to Nick and Kayla.

They're very comfortable in the water, and they are focused,

so if it's something they're trying to run after or go for,

they're, like, laser beam focused.

And I think that's why he likes some of the fun things that we do together.

He… He likes these challenges.

When they realized Mav liked water,

they were keen to share their love of the beach.

When he was a little kitten, I just thought, "Oh, put the board

in the swimming pool. It would be funny if he jumps on."

I didn't think he would, but I put the food on, and he jumped on.

But what happened after that was, we were in the middle of the lake,

and then out of the blue, he jumped out of Kayla's kayak

and swam over to my paddleboard.

And we were like, "What?"

Mav soon came to share Kayla and Nick's love of water sports.

So ex-pro wakeboarder Nick decided to up the adrenaline.

He likes to conquer his fear, and then he wants to do something bigger.

I thought, "Why don't we catch some waves? And he's…"

"He's already comfortable on the board."

Um. And that's when I got into putting the whole deck on the surfboard

where he could grip.

If he ran up to the front, he could hold tight.

And it gave him a lot of confidence.

Bengals love a challenge, it seems.

And Mav was soon mastering the moves.

When we catch the wave, the board is more on an… on a decline.

And you'll see Mav, and he'll push his arms out,

and he'll, you know, he's sort of bracing as we start to take off on the wave.

But there's a couple of times I've been surfing where I've had the board

almost doing a wheelie,

and he'll climb right up to the nose and, like, stand up above it.

The first time he did it, I thought it was crazy.

But he's using his balance, I suppose. He's very agile.

When the board's, like, wobbling or tilting,

they're able to adjust quick, and it's just natural for them.

So cats are super agile, but how do they compare to dogs?

To find out, we've laid out 100 dominoes in a corridor

and invited cats and dogs to walk over them.

First up, Team Cat,

represented by Orlando and his two friends,

Moscow and Windsor.

Orlando's up first, taking the right hand side.

Oh, there's one down and a second, oh dear.

What about Windsor?

A confident start.

Oh, no, three down right at the end.

Moscow makes a strategic approach. He's looking good.

But a slight lapse in concentration, and it's one down for him.

All in all, a great effort. Team Cat topple just six.

Next up, Team Dog, represented by Strike,

Dickens, and a rather nervous Shadow.

What's their game plan?

With seemingly no strategy whatsoever, it's all over in a matter of seconds.

Team Dog knock over 35 dominoes.

So this test was right up Team Cat's alley.

But what's the secret of their success?

Slow motion cameras reveal that cats walk with their leg muscles permanently flexed.

This means that they can control the placement

of each foot with total precision.

Rather handy when sneaking up on prey.

Dogs don't flex their muscles in the same way.

Instead, large, springy tendons in their legs

enable them to bounce with each stride.

It's more efficient but harder to control the placement of each foot.

As for Titus the tortoise,

he's less nimble-footed agility specialist and more bulldozer.

Cats and dogs aren't the only speed and agility specialists.

Our very own Gus and Stanley are also fast and nimble.

Picture them living in separate New York apartments.

Stanley's apartment is laden with everything a playful rat needs.

Gus' pad is across the street.

Luckily, there's a rope linking the two.

So Gus can pay Stanley a visit…

using it to bridge the gap.

Most animals would feel jittery crossing the street

on a rope six stories high,

but Gus' body has a built-in balance bar.

His extraordinary long prehensile tail.

Compared to other rodents, rats have one of the longest tails

relative to their body size.

And Gus uses his to maintain the perfect center of balance.

It's a lifesaving counterweight

as long as you can keep your feet on the rope.

It's hard to watch.

Even if things go wrong, his strong flexible tail can be relied on

to get him out of trouble.

It can even act like a hook,

enabling Gus to get back on top.

What a recovery.

Friends reunited.

Our next pet takes athletic ability to new heights.

Fred here is a golden macaw.

One of the world's largest parrots and a native of South America.

His strength comes from muscles and tendons so big,

they account for around a third of his body weight.

His pectoral muscles are worthy of the most dedicated bodybuilder…

converging on a huge breastbone.

Working together, they create a powerful downstroke.

His upstroke is generated by a pair of giant tendons that act as pulleys.

Driven by this muscular powerhouse and a wingspan of more than three feet,

macaws can reach speeds of 35 miles per hour.

And if you're able to tap into this remarkable athletic ability,

the results can be astonishing.

Klono is a military macaw,

resident at an animal sanctuary in Texas.

Nick Phomkasornsri runs the sanctuary.

And wherever he goes, Klono follows.

Klono is very, very special.

I mean, I love all my birds,

but the fact that he just wants to always follow, and that he's always trusting me,

it's something that I never experienced before,

and it's very, very special.

Klono's favorite part of any trip is the return home,

when he can show off his flying prowess.

When I get to a point where I can see that there's no traffic coming

all the way down to the street I turn on, that's when I stick my arm out the window

and let him fly all the way home.

They go, they go so fast.

Um. Usually, he's just kinda flying at, like, a leisurely speed,

but when he wants to go, it's impressive. They're very athletic.

Klono has no problem keeping up with Nick's car

traveling at 40 miles per hour.

As the air flows over his wings, it creates lift.

If we slow everything down, we can see

that he constantly adjusts his wings and tail,

keeping his body perfectly aerodynamic.

He adapts his flying style to conserve energy.

By angling his wings and tail feathers down,

he can also go into a high-speed glide,

utilizing the air flow from Nick's truck.

He flies so much that I think he's built up a lot of muscle,

and he can fly for a really, really long time. His stamina is amazing.

In the wild, military macaws have been known to fly

at these speeds for up to 15 miles a day in search of food.

But for Klono, it's just about relishing the total freedom Nick provides.

He loves it. He loves it.

One thing that's really important to know is that these birds,

I have spent a lot of time training them and conditioning them for free flight.

So, you can't just take your bird

and release it and think that it's gonna come back,

because it's… it's not gonna end well, most likely.

Our pets are all built differently

and their need for speed deployed in a wide variety of situations.

Looking at Michelangelo, you wouldn't think he was a speed demon.

He can hold the same position for hours.

But when he's hungry,

he unleashes one of the fastest weapons in the animal kingdom.

Michelangelo's ballistic tongue is like a coiled spring.

It accelerates from naught to 60 miles per hour

in one hundredth of a second.

Impressive.

But our next pet unleashes the same forces to propel its entire body.

Cat owners know just how fast their pets can pounce.

You're witnessing one of nature's greatest ambush predators…

born with an instinct to hunt.

Slow motion reveals their back legs are the source of their power.

Cats have more weight here than most mammals.

It's because they're full of fast twitch muscles.

Producing maximum power on demand…

enabling Ponzo to accelerate from naught to 30 miles per hour

in under three seconds,

jumping six times his height.

And thanks to an inbuilt righting reflex,

they always land on their feet.

Well, nearly always.

The pet most famous for a good set of hind legs is the rabbit.

And harnessing those hamstrings has become a competitive sport.

Deep in the Danish countryside…

competitors gather.

These rabbits are elite show jumpers.

Part of a growing sport originating in neighboring Sweden.

Aase Bjerner is the organizer of Horsens monthly competition.

The hopper is a handler, and then we have the rabbit.

And you get a very special bond to your rabbit when you hop with it.

It's not just a rabbit sitting in a hutch.

Today, I have my rabbit Mandel, and she's five years old now.

She was a little wild when she was a kid,

but by training her, she's got more calm.

And, uh, she's enjoying hopping.

Competing alongside Aase and Mandel is 17-year-old Alison

and her bunny Falke.

My rabbit is two and a half years old.

I have been training for about two years with him.

I hope it will go well because he have a good height

over the jumpings.

Today, Mandel and Falke have entered the elite competition.

Rabbits are notoriously timid animals,

but their natural behavior can be advantageous when it comes to training.

There are two rounds of 12 jumps.

Each jump is just under two foot high,

while the longest is over two foot long.

And yes, there is a water jump.

We all try to complete the course under two minutes,

because at two minutes, uh, we get a time fault,

and one more for every 15 seconds,

up to three minutes when we get disqualified.

When you're hopping, and you can see your rabbit won't take the jump,

you can take it a little back to let it, uh, look at the jump once more.

The golden rule, always stay behind your rabbit.

I walk behind him.

If I go in front of him, he will stop, 'cause they don't… they don't like that.

So always stay behind, and then he's not so much afraid.

The best jumpers are large legged Holland Lops.

But these champions are born, not made.

At the moment now, in many other rabbits

have the hopping rabbits in ten generations back, and it counts.

If you go out to an animal shop and buy a new rabbit,

it… it might not be good.

Sometimes, you'll get a rabbit and it just won't hop.

The competition includes 25 rabbits from all over Denmark,

and standards are sky high.

I'm really proud of him. It went better than I thought.

He just made one mistake, and it was so little.

I'm so proud of him.

She was very fast, so she might be the best with one fault.

I'm not sure but we have to wait till the prize giving.

And first place is Maya and Tjafel.

The results are in. In first place is Tjafel…

trained and owned by Maya.

I'm very proud of him because he only needed

two more certificates to be a champion and now he's a champion.

I think it's good to go to rabbit jump because your rabbits

come out and have fun jumping and they like it.

If they want to start training at home, they can start walking around,

and they will see the rabbit like it.

And they can go out, have fun, and meet new people,

and get new, well, friends. Yeah.

Our pets' wild past has given them some extraordinary

and unexpected athletic abilities.

By celebrating, nurturing, and unleashing them,

we can bring joy and fun into their lives

as well as our own.