I first heard of persistence hunting towards the end of Born to Run, Christopher McDougall’s manifesto on running. McDougall seeks an explanation for the human being’s incredible ability at distance running and offers persistence hunting as an explanation.
In terms of distance running, humans are without equal. There is no other animal alive that can run for hours straight. Physiologically two things enable our mammalian distance leadership: bipedalism and sweat glands. Our upright, two-legged locomotion means that we can traverse great distances with less energy than other animals. And sweat glands allow us to do this rapidly in high temperatures without overheating.
McDougall asked himself why humans alone among mammals would have developed this trait. And an episode of Nova I saw last night–part two of their Becoming Human series–confirmed McDougall’s discovery. Humans developed the ability to run great distance so they could persistence hunt, which made us the most dangerous predator in the world.
Persistence hunting is a simple concept. You just run after an animal until it lays down from exhaustion and overheating. You can then walk up to it and kill it directly, with a tool as unsophisticated as a rock. Because mammals burn energy more quickly and cannot dissipate heat without resting, all quadrupeds will eventually overheat and be forced to stop. Even under pain of death, a hungry predator drawing a knife to their neck will not change the paralysis caused by overheating.
I have been thinking about persistence hunting since I first read about it in Born to Run. Last night’s Nova episode rekindled my interest. I am officially putting it on my lifetime wish list. Some day in my life I want to feed myself with the spoils of a persistence hunt.