Animal Heart Rate Chart: Elephant, Whale, Dog, Cat & More

An adult elephant's heart beats about 25 to 35 times a minute at rest, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual's resting heart rate table. A diving blue whale's heart has been recorded as low as 2 beats a minute. An Etruscan shrew, which weighs about 2 grams, idles at over 800.

A cat counted on the sofa, a sedated cheetah and a whale on a deep dive give very different kinds of readings, so the chart below says how each number was measured and where it comes from.

Animal heart rate chart

Beats per minute (bpm), roughly from the smallest animal to the largest. Ranges are typical for healthy animals, and excitement, exercise, heat, age and a vet visit all move the number.

The tiny animals at the top beat hundreds of times a minute. The elephant and the blue whale at the bottom beat more slowly than a resting person.

Why do small animals have faster heart rates?

Heart rate tracks metabolic rate, the speed at which the body uses energy. In the Etruscan shrew study, a resting shrew used about 67 times as much oxygen per gram of body weight as a resting person, and its heart beat about 12 times as fast.

Merck puts the rule plainly: the larger the species, the slower the heart's natural pacemaker (the sinoatrial or SA node) fires, and the slower the heart rate.

Across mammals, faster hearts also go with shorter lives. A 1997 review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology put heart rate times lifespan at roughly one billion beats for a typical mammal and read heart rate as a marker of metabolic rate, not the thing that sets lifespan. It describes species, and says nothing about how long your own pet will live.

Heart rates animal by animal

Elephant

Merck lists 25 to 35 bpm, and field data agree. In a 2024 study, researchers fitted 35 Asian elephants aged 4 months to 52 years with a non-invasive ECG sensor at Wild Elephant Valley in China. Average rates ran from about 27 to 38 bpm, lowest on hot-season mornings and about 6 beats a minute higher in the afternoon.

Age mattered; sex didn't. Adults averaged about 36 bpm, juveniles aged 1 to 5 about 46, and the study's one calf under a year about 61.

Blue whale

A 2019 study in PNAS recorded a wild blue whale's heart with an ECG tag. On feeding dives as deep as 184 m (about 600 feet) and as long as 16.5 minutes, it usually beat 4 to 8 times a minute and dropped as low as 2. At the surface between dives it sped up to 25 to 37 bpm. That's a single whale, so don't read the figures as a species range.

Etruscan shrew

The pygmy shrew often gets credit for the fastest mammal heart, but the best published measurements are for a related species, the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), whose adults weigh about 2 grams. In a 1996 lab study, resting shrews averaged about 835 bpm. One reading hit 1,511, the highest the authors had seen reported for any warm-blooded animal.

Hummingbirds and other birds

Merck notes that birds can rest at about 115 to 130 bpm and reach 670 when active, depending on size and species. Hummingbirds go further: over 1,200 bpm when active. We couldn't find a reliable resting figure for them, so the chart shows the active one.

Cheetah

The only figure we could verify for the fastest land animal comes from eight healthy captive adult cheetahs examined under anesthesia for heart X-rays and ECGs: they averaged about 126 bpm, in normal rhythm. Because they were anesthetized, that isn't an awake resting number, and we found no solid figure for a sprinting cheetah.

Giraffe

We couldn't find a reliable published resting rate for awake giraffes, so they're not in the chart. The plumbing is better documented: a giraffe's heart pushes blood more than 2 meters (over 6 feet) up to the head, and the wall of its left ventricle, the main pumping chamber, can be about 8 cm (3.2 inches) thick, National Geographic reports.

Cat

Merck's resting range for cats is 120 to 140 bpm, and cats show best how much the setting changes the number. A study that fitted 16 healthy young cats with heart monitors found an average of 132 bpm at home, 150 in a quiet room at the hospital and 187 while being held for a heart ultrasound. In a hospital, Merck notes, cats typically read 180 to 220.

So a clinic reading above your sofa count is expected. What's worth mentioning is a change from your cat's own usual resting rate. If your cat is coughing, our guide to why cats cough covers the common reasons.

Dog

Merck's resting range for dogs is 70 to 120 bpm, and the rate depends on size. The Animal Medical Center in New York breaks it down for owners:

• Small dogs: 90 to 120 bpm
• Medium dogs: 70 to 110 bpm
• Large dogs: 60 to 90 bpm

We haven't found a puppy or kitten range from a source we trust, so ask your vet what's normal for a young pet.

Rabbit

Rabbits rest at 180 to 350 bpm, per Merck, far faster than dogs or cats.

Cow

A resting dairy cow's heart beats 48 to 84 times a minute. Merck lists a slower 36 to 60 for the ox.

Sheep and goats

Sheep and goats share the same resting range in Merck's table: 70 to 80 bpm.

Pig

Pigs rest at 70 to 120 bpm.

Horse

A resting adult horse has one of the slowest hearts on the farm: 28 to 40 bpm, per Merck, with the pacemaker firing about 30 times a minute. Our guide to horse anatomy shows how that heart fits into the rest of the body.

How to check your pet's heart rate

One reading tells you less than your pet's own normal. The Animal Medical Center's method:

1. Wait until your pet is relaxed and resting, ideally lying down. Stress and room temperature both affect the number.
2. Find the beat. Place your hand on the left side of the chest where the elbow meets it, or rest two fingers on the femoral artery on the inside of the hind leg.
3. Count the beats for 30 seconds and multiply by two.
4. Repeat on a few calm days and write the numbers down. That range is your pet's baseline.

Cats usually read lower at home than at the clinic, so bring your log to appointments. For the detail, see the normal dog heart rate by size and age, the normal cat heart rate, or all normal vital signs in one chart. If your dog has heart disease, your vet may also ask you to count its resting breaths at home.

When an abnormal heart rate needs a vet

Heart rate on its own is a clue, not a diagnosis. Your veterinarian listens to the heart and lungs, checks the pulse and gum color, and decides on tests. The Animal Medical Center's rule for owners: any change from your pet's usual baseline with no clear cause is worth a call.

Call your vet now

• Fainting or collapse
• Pale, blue, purple or gray gums
• Breathing trouble: labored breathing, or fast breathing at rest
• A very fast, very slow or irregular pulse while your pet is resting

See your vet soon

• A resting heart rate that keeps drifting from your pet's usual baseline
• Tiring easily on walks or during play
• Coughing
• A swollen belly
• Eating less or losing weight

Mention at your next visit

• You've started a home log and want your vet to confirm what's normal for your pet
• Your cat's home readings, so your vet can compare them with the clinic's

If your vet has found a murmur in your dog, see our guide to heart murmurs in dogs. For cats, read about congestive heart failure in cats.

Does every animal have a heart?

No. Octopuses and other cephalopods usually have three: one pumps blood around the body, and two push it through the gills. Sea stars have no heart and no blood at all. Millions of tiny beating hairs called cilia move seawater through tubes inside the body instead.

Sources

• Merck Veterinary Manual: Resting Heart Rates
• Merck Veterinary Manual: The Cardiovascular System in Animals
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease in Dogs
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease in Cats
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Heart Disease and Heart Failure in Cats
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Evaluation and Initial Treatment of Dog and Cat Emergencies
• The Animal Medical Center: Vital Signs, Know What's Normal for Your Pet
• Abbott JA, 2005: Heart rate and heart rate variability of healthy cats in home and hospital environments (Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery)
• Zhou F et al., 2024: Heart rate patterns of captive Asian elephants in their natural habitat (Heliyon)
• Goldbogen JA et al., 2019: Extreme bradycardia and tachycardia in the world's largest animal (PNAS)
• Jürgens KD et al., 1996: Heart and respiratory rates in the Etruscan shrew (Journal of Experimental Biology)
• Schumacher J et al., 2003: Cardiac evaluation of captive cheetahs (Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine)
• Levine HJ, 1997: Rest heart rate and life expectancy (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)
• MedlinePlus: Pulse
• National Geographic: The World's Weirdest Hearts

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for advice from your veterinarian.