• rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      humans sweat but antelopes don’t. this is part of what makes humans (and also wolves and some other social canids, and hyenas that pant instead) hilariously good at long distance running and so can just run or jog following a herd until antelopes collapse from heat exhaustion. this is called persistence hunting. this is also why we have domesticated wolves, probably

      i’m pretty sure that there’s a tribe or a couple of them that practice that form of hunting even today

      that’s how the story goes, anyway, whether it was actually a thing or a side product or misinterpretation is something else entirely

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Plus being upright. Most of our weight is supported by skeleton, rather than muscles that get tired, and walking is mostly a matter of falling forward in a controlled manner

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I think it’s been explained, but to reiterate, while humans aren’t fast, we’re very good at walking/trotting for extended periods of time - both because we have sweat glands that many animals lack, but also because bipedal locomotion is more efficient over a long distance.

      Our earlier ancestors would set out after a herbivore, say an aurochs (the bigger the better), during the hottest part of the day, and cause it to flee. When it stopped to cool, they’d jog up after it and caused it to run away again, until it got so hot that it collapsed from heatstroke.

      We’re having steak, boys!

    • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      Humans have some of the most impressive endurance capabilities of any animal on the planet, particularly when it comes to long-distance running.

      Take a cheetah, for example. It can reach roughly 60–70 mph, but it can only sustain that kind of sprint for a matter of seconds before it overheats and has to stop. A human obviously can’t come remotely close to that speed, but we can keep running for hours, especially in hot conditions where many other mammals are forced to slow down or stop.

      That endurance would have been an enormous advantage for a hunter. Combine it with human-level intelligence, cooperation, communication, and the ability to track prey over long distances, and you end up with what is essentially a soft, squishy killing machine that just keeps coming.

      You don’t have to be the fastest animal if you can simply keep following your prey until it can’t run anymore.

    • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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      1 day ago

      Tribes, and wolves and dogs (they are distinct and out pals came from dogs not wolves, their split happened much earlier I’ve been informed,) would follow herds for months. Indefinitely.