Humans have the highest capacity for endurance and for a very long time we hunted not by being smarter but by literally following animals until they got tired and gave up before we did.
Peak animal capacity right there. Imagine being so totally and entirely beyond the abilities of our contemporaries that this is considered an apex predator.
To follow an animal often required tracking it when it ran out of sight. Our sense of smell stinks, so we looked for clues on where it went. That’s smart
Yeah, you’re right. I should have said that our sense of smell isn’t specialized for smelling other animals at a distance for tracking like many other animals can.
The thing with a lot of animals is also that they’re pretty dumb.
They could potentially out walk us, it’s the most energy efficient way of moving, but what they actually do is run off when they see a human, then when they no longer see the human, they take a break. At which point the human catches up. At which point they run off again. Repeat multiple times.
The human simply has to keep walking, while the animal keeps running off. If the animal instead walked, the human would never or take far longer to catch up, because the animal would tire itself far less.
Humans have the highest capacity for endurance and for a very long time we hunted not by being smarter but by literally following animals until they got tired and gave up before we did.
I believe certain breeds of dogs and horses can keep up with us, but only because we bred them to.
Early human to wolf: “You stalk. I stalk. Stalk together?”
Wolf: “Us BFF4Eva hairless ape”
The most enduring love story in human history.
20,000 years later:
20,000 years later:
Peak animal capacity right there. Imagine being so totally and entirely beyond the abilities of our contemporaries that this is considered an apex predator.
I will kill for this creature
Iirc, the dogs are huskies
I believe there were a few breeds who can but Huskies are the well known ones.
To follow an animal often required tracking it when it ran out of sight. Our sense of smell stinks, so we looked for clues on where it went. That’s smart
Our sense of smell isn’t bad. We’re great at detecting minute variations in smells as well as detecting rotting things in very little quantity.
Yeah, you’re right. I should have said that our sense of smell isn’t specialized for smelling other animals at a distance for tracking like many other animals can.
That, plus we are good at throwing things and we sweat. Which means we have range and we can cool off while still being active.
The thing with a lot of animals is also that they’re pretty dumb.
They could potentially out walk us, it’s the most energy efficient way of moving, but what they actually do is run off when they see a human, then when they no longer see the human, they take a break. At which point the human catches up. At which point they run off again. Repeat multiple times.
The human simply has to keep walking, while the animal keeps running off. If the animal instead walked, the human would never or take far longer to catch up, because the animal would tire itself far less.
Humans use less energy because we’re bipedal. Even if the hunted animals walked, presumably humans could trail them and wait them out.
I mean it’s not dumb, it’s evolution. Can you imagine a deer “just walking” away from any other predator?
https://i.imgur.com/h3DTCqU.png
This is why horror movie characters always just walk slowly
Also, teamwork. Chasing animals in circles and handing off.