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Andy_G11 | 3 years ago

Interesting video here of one of the San people running down a Kudu which collapses from exhaustion after an 8 hour chase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o. Hard to compare this to Sorokin because the hunter is running in veld, not on a road, and has far less access to refueling points. Also, if he fails to track the prey down on day one, he would probably have a go again on day two, maybe even day three. Interesting claims too, that as an upright runner which sweats from glands all over his body, and as a creature capable of carrying water, man may have had persistence advantages over creatures with less ability to cool themselves and which run on four legs - a less energy efficient mode of running according to Attenborough.

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igouy|3 years ago

You might find this interesting —

"Rather than being the elite heat-endurance athletes of the animal kingdom, humans are instead using their elite intellect to leverage everything they can from their moderate endurance capabilities, optimising their behaviours during a hunt to bridge the gap between their limited athleticism and that of their more physically capable prey. Our capacity for profuse sweating provides a subtle but essential boost to our endurance capabilities in hot environments. This is a slight but critical advantage that our ingenuity magnifies to achieve the seemingly impossible: the running down of a fleeter-footed quarry."

2020 "Are humans evolved specialists for running in the heat? Man vs. horse races provide empirical insights"

https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/EP088502

igouy|3 years ago

"Over the course of 20 years, only two of the ER hunts observed by Liebenberg were spontaneous. Eight others were prompted by Liebenberg so that they could be filmed for television documentaries."

p436 "The endurance running hypothesis and hunting and scavenging in savanna-woodlands"

https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-ma...

igouy|3 years ago

Dog owners know to take water with them for the dog, if they're walking a few miles on a hot day.

igouy|3 years ago

That gives the wrong impression. That's about people trying to keep their pets comfortable, not about how well dogs can run in the heat.