Noooo LOL,,I am not talking about a little Antelope, I'm talking one of those prehistoric monsters,,,hahahaha. I think the one they showed looked something like a water buffalo but HUGE!
SOME humans can run long distances. All animals can. SOME humans can run very fast, but only for short distances. MANY animals can run fast and regrettably they are the ones that kill for food. Try outrunning a cheetah at marathon speed.
Cheetahs are inbred losers. After a short, very short, sprint they spend quite a long time recovering. If a cheetah doesn't catch it's prey after a few seconds then it won't be catching anything for hours.
The San of the Kalihari still hunt by running animals down. They will often follow an animal for days until the animal simply runs out of steam. You can even hunt rabbits on foot. Rabbits usually run in a straight line and then turn ninety degrees to either the left or right. Some rabbits tend to always turn right and some tend to always turn left. After chasing the rabbit for a while you know which way it will turn and can simply bisect its path and cut it off. (I say YOU can do it because at this point in my life I am way too old and out of shape.)
It what Jason Does in all the Friday the 13th movies. He walks after them while they run away, then BAM! He's right in front of your tired arse!
I think you just chase the pack, and the slow weak ones will get left behind, then you take those out. I dont even think the Khoisan compare, because this persistence hunting is in a time before the domesticated dog. The Khoisan use dogs, which is like cheating compared to persistence hunting. They were mentioned in the article as a modern example of persistence hunters. Not many animals can run long distances, including most predators. Predators usually hide, and jump out from ambush. You could probably fight off a cheetah, they arent that big, and dont have the claws of most felines, plus they trip their prey and if it cant get you to the ground, then it cant beat you. LOL best post of the thread. And so true!
Not as well as SOME humans though. Thats the point of the article. It might be possible. If you can outrun an antelope this way, why not a cheetah? Cheetah's are not designed for endurance running any more than antelopes are. They are sprint hunters.
It is important to realize that a marathon runner is in tiptop shape and is accustom to running long distance, while an antelope is not accustom to running long distances. A better match would be an average human being that is not a marathon runner, or try to train an antelope to run long distance then see who will get exhausted first.
Humans do 2 things better than other animals. 1 is sweat. Our sweat is pretty much water while other animals sweat is a lot more oily. 2 is our ability to carry water in technology we have invented. Go for a run and carry a waterhole with you.
It is important to realize that what we consider "tip top shape" was a lot more common in the past than it is now. People were a lot tougher in the days before technology. We are actually comparing pre-historic humans (who are still genetically human) to animals. But that would not be the situation that exists naturally, would it?
I cant speak for anyone else, but I would not run to get a piece of pizza laying on the road. Probably not even if I was starving.
That is true, but it does not mean that most were long distance runner either. And neither is the average person able to out run an antelope today....at least not people in Countries like the U.S.
Well, 10000 years ago there were no supermarkets. You either were a long distance runner or you starved to death. The average person today has the capacity to be a marathon runner. It's just that nowadays we earn our bread by sitting in padded ergonomic swivel chairs in front of computers in air conditioned offices and simply pull open our fridge whenever we feel the desire to stuff our faces. Our bodies being the extremely efficient adaptable wonders they are, our muscles and cardiovascular systems atrophy to conserve energy and only retain enough functionality to deal with our typical day to day exertions, which are peanuts compared to what they were, say, 10000 years ago. Perhaps not. But a bit of practice, and your body will rapidly return to its preferred state of a lithe long distance running machine.
I once saw a nature program where a bushman did just that. He ran a Kudu into the ground. The Kudu is a large grey antilope and at the end of a very long run, it simply could not stand up anymore and the bushman speared it. The bushman had two main advantages: 1) He could sweat. The Kudu has fur and can not sweat. 2) He carried a waterskin with maybe a gallon of water to drink. Still, it took hours under the burning sun before the Kudu simply fell to its knees. He lost sight of the Kudu a couple of times, but he could track it. So, the brains to track an animal, hands to make a waterskin and the ability to sweat -> Win!
Hey, I found the clip on YouTube: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUpo_mA5RP8"]YouTube - David Attenborough - African Kalahari Desert Kudu Persistence Hunt[/ame]
From what I have read, hunting was a communal activity. Seems to me that they could have maybe thrown a spear, hit the animal then take turns running it down. Wolves hunt the same way (except with tooth and claw instead of spears). Check that, I just saw the vid....Amazing...
Why is this a surprise. Down here we are well aware of it, as this is exactly how the San-Bushmen hunt. These very small Desert dwellers run after antelope for very very long distances until the antelope just can not run anymore. As the San's weapons are very weak, they need to get very close for them to work. So this is no surprise, surely? AH
It should not be a surprise as we have known this for hundreds of years. And it is not about outrunning the animal, over a short distance they are faster, but about endurance. AH
