A flea can jump up to 13 inches (33 cm), about 130 times its height — but it's not the jumping champion. The insect with the longest jumps is the froghopper, which can jump up 28 inches (71 cm), which is about 150 times its body height. This would be about the equivalent of an average-size man jumping over the Gateway Arch in St. Louis or over two of the pyramids at Giza stacked on top of each other. When froghoppers make these jumps, they experiences forces of as much as 400 times the pull of gravity. To put that in perspective, humans pass out at 5 G's.
More facts jumping animals:
- The longest-jumping mammal is a cougar, which can jump 20-40 feet (6-12 m) horizontally and 18 feet (5.5 m) vertically into trees — that's about the same height as a two story building.
- Most long-jumping animals have exceptionally developed hind legs to propel them into the jumps. In the case of froghoppers, their hind legs are so long that they actually trail behind the insect on the ground when not in use.
- A flying fish can leap up to 4 feet (1.2 m) out of the water and glide through the air for up to 160 ft (50 m).
