Fleas can jump impressively far relative to their small size. On average, fleas can jump about 8 to 12 inches horizontally, with some species like dog fleas able to jump slightly further, up to around 20 inches. Vertically, fleas can jump from about 5 to 7.9 inches on average, with some dog fleas reaching heights up to 10 inches, and in exceptional cases some fleas have jumped as high as 2 feet (24 inches). These jumps are roughly 40 to 150 times their own body length, which is extremely impressive for such tiny insects. The key to their remarkable jumping ability is a protein called resilin, which acts like an elastic pad, allowing them to store and release energy quickly, enabling jumps that are many times their body length. To put this in perspective, a flea jumping 150 times its body length is analogous to a human jumping the length of multiple football fields in a single leap.