This Valentine’s Day, let’s celebrate the heart! In your body, the heart is a special organ with an important job. Hearts pump blood through the bodies of all kinds of animals. Heart rate is the number of times a heart beats per minute. Check out the bar graph and fun facts to learn more about hearts.
Back to Teacher View
Student View
Shutterstock.com
Math,
Heart to Heart
Find out how animal hearts compare to your own
By Dani Leviss
From the February 2024 Issue
Heart Rates of Select Animals
rusm/Getty Images (Giant Tortoise); iStockPhoto/Getty Images (Elephant); ktmoffitt/Getty Images (Human); Shutterstock.com (All Other Images)
*TYPICAL HEART RATES ARE USUALLY SHOWN IN RANGES. THESE ARE THE MIDDLE VALUES.
Solve It! How does a human’s heart rate compare with the heart rates of other animals on the graph?
INCREDIBLE HEARTS
NOTE: ANIMALS ARE NOT TO SCALE.
Shutterstock.com
Biggest Heart
A blue whale’s heart weighs about 400 pounds—about as much as a motorcycle!
Shutterstock.com
Fastest Heart
The 2-inch-long Etruscan shrew’s heart can beat up to 1,500 times per minute.
Joel Sartore/Photo Ark/NaturePL.com
Most Hearts
The eel-like hagfish has four hearts! It has one main heart and three simple ones that help pump.
Text-to-Speech