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The Intense 8 Hour Hunt | Attenborough Life of Mammals | BBC Earth

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  • Recommended by 6 people, in Hacker News, across 6 different months.
  • Presented by David Attenborough, as the video describes them

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

17M views16 years ago6 recommendations

ExerciseHow the body worksEndurance and VO2 maxExercise physiologyPhysiology

David Attenborough narrates a Kalahari tribesman engaging in a persistence hunt, demonstrating human endurance and heat regulation capabilities.

Check out BBC Earth on BBC online - bbc.com/earth/world For more brilliant natural history shows, exclusive to YouTube, head over to our brand-new channel Earth Unplugged! youtube.com/earthunplugged Human beings are a particular type of mammal. In this compelling clip, we see a tribesman runner pursue his prey through the most harsh conditions in a gruelling eight hour chase. Thought provoking content from the BBC's Life of Mammals documentary series. Visit bbcearth.com for all the latest animal news and wildlife videos and watch more high quality videos on the new BBC Earth YouTube channel here: youtube.com/bbcearth This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios. Service & Feedback bbcstudios.com/contact/contact-us/

Why it's here

6 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an incredible demonstration of human endurance running and evolutionary adaptation for persistence hunting.

liuhenryin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days”

The San Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert still do this today. This BBC clip on persistence hunting (narrated by David Attenborough!) is worth a watch; their endurance is absolutely incredible: link to this video
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JPKabin Hacker News • Recommends

On “The humans who outrun horses”

link to this video This is a video of human hunters (Koi San, an African ethnic group that has been pushed to extinction over the last millennia by the Bantu tribes) chasing down a kudu antelope. Antelope are great runners, but they can't cool themselves as efficiently as humans. It's a beautiful video, and the way the hunter reacts after the kill is very moving.
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Synaesthesiain Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why humans can outrun horses but can’t jump higher than cats.”

Check this remarkable video on persistence hunting in the kalahari - a hunter literally chases a buck until it's completely exhausted. link to this video
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stanfordkidin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Bees can train each other to use tools”

Either that -- or our perception of morality is wrong. Maybe it's okay to eat animals as long as we treat them well. After all if they live a long happy and decently full life that's what really counts right? I think this video really gives a good idea of how humanity used to think of hunting and eating animals: link to this video We've really lost touch with our empathy for other creatures In the old days people would respect the animal, hug it after killing it... on some level I think animals understand that their own death is a part of life.
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Frickenin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why Walking Helps Us Think (2014)”

…s probably a subpar surrogate for doing the same thing in meatspace.) link I also recommend this BBC video of a persistence hunter tracking and running down a Kudu, just as an illustration of how walking/running, language/tracking, spatial memory, and planning/creativity are all tied together as a system that was once necessary for our survival: link to this video…
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Andy_G11in Hacker News • Recommends

On “Aleksandr Sorokin smashes 24-hour world record with 198.6 mile run”

Interesting video here of one of the San people running down a Kudu which collapses from exhaustion after an 8 hour chase: link to this video . 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 At…
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zatarain Hacker News • Mentions

On “A Vegan No More”

If you are into hunting, I think you should make things fair for both sides. Leave the gun at home and try something like this: link to this video
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etcetin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?”

> I am inclined to think we're built to go for a walk to a hunting ground, sprint and throw an arrow. The adaption to bipedalism actually reduced our sprinting capabilities and increased our endurance. It's likely that we used our superior endurance to chase down our prey over long distances far before we had arrows. See link to this video
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user2459in Hacker News • Mentions

On “Humans hot, sweaty, natural-born runners”

"We’re the tortoises of the animal kingdom" ... That might be the deepest thing I've ever read. Also, here's Attenborough narrating this article link to this video
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banein Hacker News • Mentions

On “Humans hot, sweaty, natural-born runners”

"In particular, persistence hunting (the form of hunting that relied on long distance running)" link Here it is in action link to this video
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pav3lin Hacker News • Mentions

On “For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact”

Whoever is interested, here are two very good academic articles about persistent hunting (subscription required): link link Also, here is a video of a modern persistent hunter link to this video
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tim333in Hacker News • Mentions

On “They're Made out of Meat”

I have not come across the "without sleep" thing before and the Wikipedia link does not seem to mention it. The Wikipedia persistence hunting is to jog after them under the midday sun until the prey overheats. That stuff you can see on youtube - link to this video
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lotuin Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Economics of Mad Max and Star Trek”

I had to continue: > Work before farming resembles what the rich do on holiday today. The rich spend their holidays intimidating lions of their own kill link or running for 8 hours to drive a Kudo to having a heart attack link to this video >Subsistence farmers worked far longer hours than their ancestors. They died younger and lived more miserable lives. The sole upside was that farming allowed the same plot of land to feed many more people. The author misses the upside of not worrying about getting eaten by a lion or trampled by a wildebeest.
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jplewickein Hacker News • Mentions

On “Do Portia Spiders Have a Mind? (2006)”

…extremely sensitive sensory abilities that are used by other persistence hunters. In the absence of such senses, early hominids had to predict where prey would go and accurately pursue them over very long distances based on very small amounts of visual evidence. In short, early hominids hunted by simulating the minds of their prey. If you look at link to this video (a documentary on persistence hunting), you can watch some Kudu tribesmen literally simulating where an antelope will go. It certainly seems to me like lucking into an evolutionary niche where you get caloric benefits that are directly linked to how well you can simulate the fairly-complicated minds of your prey is pretty much a recipe for…
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SEJeffin Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Calorie Paradox of Raw Veganism (1999)”

One of the more reasonable theories about why Neanderthals went extinct was due to Homo Erectus and then Homo Sapiens having much more plentiful and common access to protein. The book Born to Run mentions Endurance Hunting1 where tribes literally run down game animals such as elk or gazelles until they overheat as proof of this. There are tribes that . Virtually no other mammal on the planet can sweat while on the move. Big dogs and cats have to stop and pant or find shade to sweat and cool down. If they don't, they'll overheat and die. There are evil still tribes2 that do this today. 1 link 2 link to this video
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AnotherGoodNamein Hacker News • Mentions

On “For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off from All Human Contact (2013)”

If you watch the attenborough documentary linked above it has some clear examples. "The hunters have no tracks at this point and so must imagine the path the Kudu has taken". And later, "The tracks have disappeared again. He imagines being in the mind of the Kudu to deduce the direction it must have fled". There's also the case that tracks alone need a lot of intelligence to process. "Here they can see the Kudu were running by the spacing of the tracks and the bull is isolated and taking a different track". link to this video
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