Berliner Boersenzeitung - How hunting may have turned humans into long-distance runners

EUR -
AED 4.313975
AFN 80.547545
ALL 97.434934
AMD 449.73046
ANG 2.102303
AOA 1077.171324
ARS 1492.791377
AUD 1.764031
AWG 2.116752
AZN 2.0016
BAM 1.955498
BBD 2.367734
BDT 143.357833
BGN 1.955498
BHD 0.442032
BIF 3495.35953
BMD 1.174668
BND 1.502568
BOB 8.102747
BRL 6.532923
BSD 1.172619
BTN 101.493307
BWP 15.744565
BYN 3.837607
BYR 23023.499991
BZD 2.355536
CAD 1.60865
CDF 3393.617337
CHF 0.926897
CLF 0.028411
CLP 1114.547663
CNY 8.403625
CNH 8.419418
COP 4775.561579
CRC 592.408399
CUC 1.174668
CUP 31.128712
CVE 110.247953
CZK 24.57048
DJF 208.817712
DKK 7.463496
DOP 71.148999
DZD 151.843521
EGP 57.684081
ERN 17.620026
ETB 163.190867
FJD 2.634488
FKP 0.868566
GBP 0.867394
GEL 3.18381
GGP 0.868566
GHS 12.254105
GIP 0.868566
GMD 84.57654
GNF 10176.42647
GTQ 9.000608
GYD 245.342064
HKD 9.220266
HNL 30.706252
HRK 7.537617
HTG 153.886205
HUF 396.850416
IDR 19217.339549
ILS 3.93908
IMP 0.868566
INR 101.611755
IQD 1536.162471
IRR 49468.226083
ISK 142.276286
JEP 0.868566
JMD 187.051077
JOD 0.832886
JPY 173.446879
KES 151.506573
KGS 102.553011
KHR 4697.273684
KMF 491.603168
KPW 1057.180577
KRW 1625.318589
KWD 0.358662
KYD 0.977249
KZT 639.001194
LAK 25279.09122
LBP 105069.953557
LKR 353.815291
LRD 235.113646
LSL 20.812382
LTL 3.468491
LVL 0.710546
LYD 6.330021
MAD 10.545169
MDL 19.72395
MGA 5179.199166
MKD 61.550483
MMK 2466.23401
MNT 4213.875517
MOP 9.481134
MRU 46.800763
MUR 53.342135
MVR 18.094285
MWK 2033.385588
MXN 21.777064
MYR 4.958867
MZN 75.131746
NAD 20.812382
NGN 1799.510154
NIO 43.153327
NOK 11.93722
NPR 162.388891
NZD 1.948849
OMR 0.45153
PAB 1.172619
PEN 4.153358
PGK 4.860248
PHP 67.132737
PKR 332.301418
PLN 4.249143
PYG 8783.641829
QAR 4.274539
RON 5.067641
RSD 117.131888
RUB 93.035614
RWF 1695.037905
SAR 4.407892
SBD 9.732239
SCR 16.61843
SDG 705.392672
SEK 11.192362
SGD 1.503815
SHP 0.923105
SLE 26.959075
SLL 24632.212956
SOS 670.196371
SRD 43.067458
STD 24313.263549
STN 24.496212
SVC 10.260413
SYP 15274.076539
SZL 20.804783
THB 38.024448
TJS 11.198868
TMT 4.123086
TND 3.423471
TOP 2.751195
TRY 47.634334
TTD 7.973767
TWD 34.632517
TZS 3004.935362
UAH 49.031718
UGX 4204.349902
USD 1.174668
UYU 46.972737
UZS 14837.70572
VES 141.281363
VND 30711.704452
VUV 140.346654
WST 3.215641
XAF 655.855588
XAG 0.030755
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.1746
XCG 2.113373
XDR 0.815674
XOF 655.855588
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.036769
ZAR 20.86834
ZMK 10573.429114
ZMW 27.351771
ZWL 378.242735
  • CMSC

    0.0550

    22.485

    +0.24%

  • RIO

    -0.7300

    63.1

    -1.16%

  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • RBGPF

    -1.1200

    73.88

    -1.52%

  • SCS

    0.0700

    10.58

    +0.66%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    22.89

    +0.17%

  • BCC

    1.7100

    88.14

    +1.94%

  • NGG

    -0.0800

    72.15

    -0.11%

  • JRI

    -0.0600

    13.09

    -0.46%

  • RELX

    -0.9800

    52.73

    -1.86%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    13.2

    -0.3%

  • BTI

    -0.3700

    52.25

    -0.71%

  • BCE

    -0.2300

    24.2

    -0.95%

  • VOD

    -0.0900

    11.43

    -0.79%

  • GSK

    -0.2600

    37.97

    -0.68%

  • AZN

    -1.0200

    72.66

    -1.4%

  • BP

    0.0700

    32.2

    +0.22%

How hunting may have turned humans into long-distance runners
How hunting may have turned humans into long-distance runners / Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA - AFP/File

How hunting may have turned humans into long-distance runners

Researchers have discovered hundreds of historical accounts of humans hunting prey by chasing them down over long distances, which some believe is why we evolved our unique talent for endurance running.

Text size:

While speedy animals such as cheetahs or antelopes may outrun us initially, over tens of kilometres humans can slowly chase them down partly thanks to our lack of hot fur and ability to sweat buckets.

Some scientists have even proposed that endurance hunting contributed to humans evolving bodies that are so different to other primates, which are not capable of long-distance running.

But the theory has been a matter of heated debate among scientists, with sceptics arguing that there are few historical examples.

Eugene Morin, an anthropologist at Canada's Trent University and lead author of a new study, told AFP that this form of hunting had long been "considered marginal".

But for the study, published this week in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the researchers discovered many accounts "consistent with endurance hunting" dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries, he said.

- In the long run -

Compared to many animals, humans are poor sprinters. While some of us can cover 10 metres a second for around 20 seconds, cheetahs can run three times faster for several minutes.

But Morin said that a "cheetah is like a Ferrari without a radiator -- capable of hitting very high speeds but incapable of dissipating heat".

This means that cheetahs, horses, antelopes and other swift-footed animals have to completely stop running so they can bring their internal temperature down.

This is when we catch up.

Humans can do this partly thanks to our incredible talent for sweating, which brings our temperature down, allowing us to keep going.

We sweat 10 times the density of chimpanzees, our closest relatives. Marathon runners can sweat more than three litres of water an hour.

Also helping keep our temperature low is our lack of fur, another way major difference between humans differ and our primate relatives.

Biologists have also found that humans' skeletal muscles are mostly made out of fatigue-resistant fibres, which help with long-distance running.

And traits such as longer lower legs and larger joints suggest that the ancestors of humans were running long distances at least 1.8 million years ago, according to the study.

The endurance running theory, first proposed more than 40 years ago, posits that humans evolved these unique characteristics as an advantage for hunting down prey.

Sceptics have said that running would have spent far more energy than simply walking after prey.

Morin acknowledged that running does expend more energy, but said this cost was mostly offset by the amount of time it saved.

The researchers used modelling to demonstrate that the energy gained from the meat of successfully chased-down prey outweighed that spent while running.

- 'Relentless pursuit' -

The researchers searched for examples of endurance running in a database they assembled of more than 8,000 recently digitised accounts of hunting dating back to the 15 century.

They found nearly 400 examples from 272 places across the world, from the Arctic to Chile, Africa to Oceania.

In a text dating from 1850, Native Americans spoke of their ancestors hunting moose by running them down while wearing snowshoes.

"Our young men were strong in those days," the text said. "Now our young are... lazy and feeble," it added.

In another text, dating from the early 1500s, the Coahuiltecan people spoke of chasing down deer and elk in what is now California.

"This, of course, does not mean that they outsped them, but that in a relentless pursuit they wore down the endurance of the game," the text said.

Morin said these stories had been overlooked because when ethnographic research started to "become professional" in the 1800s, the emergence of guns meant persistence hunting was largely a thing of the past.

However it is still carried out today by the San people in Botswana, who can chase down antelopes until the animals collapse of exhaustion.

Cara Wall-Scheffler, a biologist at Seattle Pacific University who has been sceptical of the endurance hunting theory, told New Scientist that the new study was "super interesting".

But she also pointed out that endurance running is mentioned in only two percent of the accounts analysed by the researchers.

(A.Lehmann--BBZ)