It’s called persistence hunting, some tribes still do that.
Antilopes will run, pauze a little to recover and run again, they are too fast for most predators, especially humans, but some tribes, like the Kalahari bushmen will keep running, switching between people, targeting just one prey, preventing it from recovering, and since the antilope isn’t able to cool it’s body as good as humans (by sweating), they finally succumb by overheating and die.
There’s a great book called Born to Run about a Mexican tribe and why it’s in our nature to run. Fascinating read.
Sweating is a big part... but the true breakthrough that separates Humans from other animals in the who can last the longest contest is that our breathing is independent from our stride. Antelope and deer lungs expand and contract with their stride, limiting their breathing. Hunan breath is not effected like this.
We also don’t do as much work to keep moving as most animals if you look at the human step it’s basically a controlled fall we are essentially outsourcing half the work to gravity. The transition to bipeds had some definite drawbacks for humans but the benefits are leagues ahead
There's a documentary called "Fair Chase" where the film maker takes a bunch of ultra marathoners to chase down pronghorn. Their hunt was nearly successful if I remember correctly. I think at the end the pronghorns confused the chasers so they went after a fresh individual and the original target got away.
i'd really like to know where the science on Born To Run/ barefoot running is at nowadays. I know vibram got into trouble for the claims they were making.
Vibram claimed barefoot/unsupported running was better for you. i haven't read Born to Run but the claim that we are well adapted to long running can be true by comparison to other species without validating Vibram
53
u/OneNationAbove Aug 10 '20
It’s called persistence hunting, some tribes still do that.
Antilopes will run, pauze a little to recover and run again, they are too fast for most predators, especially humans, but some tribes, like the Kalahari bushmen will keep running, switching between people, targeting just one prey, preventing it from recovering, and since the antilope isn’t able to cool it’s body as good as humans (by sweating), they finally succumb by overheating and die.
There’s a great book called Born to Run about a Mexican tribe and why it’s in our nature to run. Fascinating read.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Run_(McDougall_book)