We just think we are hunters

I have read that they are taught to track quarter sized tortoises that were given a days head start. They don't get to eat or drink till they catch it.

They use beetle larvae from the Cryidasala Beetle, so toxic that a scratch will still lead to death.

These guys are the real deal.

Their endurance method is just nuts to watch. No weapons.....just amazing human brains and efficient bodies.

Count me as skeptical.

There's an article out there of a guy trying to do this with pronghorn, long story short he trained and tried for years and was never successful

Marty,

Let's try it?

You bring your spear, and African hunting shoes, I'll provide the black bear track, and film you.

That was great Danny, thanks for sharing.

Cabeza de Vaca in his journal describes the hunting method the native Americans used when he landed somewhere on the Louisiana coast. He describes in detail how the hunters would run white-tailed deer down to hunt them. They pretty much just ran them to death. WTD are good for short distances, but cannot endure the long game. Back then, the forests had never seen a saw or an axe and a hunter could probably see for a long ways in some of the areas to chase his quarry. There are some natives in the Andes mountains that are still the best runners in the world because their lungs are adapted to the high altitude, and they can endure things no ordinary man can.

Not a doubt in my mind, those San people and their ancestors hunted this way. Truly extraordinary people.

That you could do it or the bushman could do it? Trust me, we are all on board with one of those statements!

gives 'run em down' a whole new meaning. Kudos to those fellas....no women doing that there eh?

I've sent this and similar to people who wanna get on a high horse and say something inst hunting but their way is.
O, thermal hunting isnt real hunting ? O so you must Hunt like these guys in the Kalahari..... No you just sit in a box stand with a heater over a food plot ? Thought so so shut it

We are so removed from reality in this country, that none of us truly understand what it takes to survive and raise a family by primitive means.

Of all the many things I saw on my one and only african safari - without a doubt, the trackers were the most amazing. If one of them had said they could track the shadow a crow had made as it flew over - I would have believed them.

In the book , "Born to Run", there's a guy who did just that. The account and research leading up to it is fascinating. Paul Schaefer , a late bowyer and bow hunter of renown , once made a marginal hit on an antelope and essentially persistence hunted it down . Took him , I wanna say, eight miles.

Running on two feet is more efficient than running on four? Just one of the issues I have with this video. What's to keep the kudu from rejoining the herd? Also, the ancients didn't have running shoes and socks. I don't buy it. Just plain sensationalism TV is all it is.

Good point. Heck anyone can run a kudu to ground if they wear a pair of desert Jordan’s.

On another note, when I was a kid late 60’s I saw a show about a guy in maybe upstate New York who would wait on a fresh snow then run whitetail bucks down. Shot em with his rifle as they gradually held longer and longer looking back. Does that count?

Osky

Osky, I knew a guy that bow hunted mule deer like that. He didnt run just kept making it get up all day. he did not get every one but he got some dandys. After while some bucks would let him get within bow range. I dont think they were exhausted just curious.

The guy that ran that Kudu to exhaustion overheated it. He had a jug of water. The animal tried to shade up and he did not let that happen.

I cant run 25 miles in 2 hours but marathoners do it regularly.

In Spain, the Spanish would run down red legged partridge in the heat. I went with one and we ran one down. You ran after them when they flew and, just kept up when they ran. He said it wore them out more to run. They would catch them and cage them. I would guess it is common across Europe. A red legged partridge is very close to a Chucker Partridge. Size, habits and only slightly different color.

In 1755, at the age of 17 or 18, James Smith was captured by Native Americans in the vicinity of Fort Necessity. He spent 4 years as a captive and adoptee. In his account of his time with the tribe Smith recounts an attempt made to run down a horse, an animal the Indians were not particularly familiar with at the time, but expected to be successful based on their experience with deer. They were completely unsuccessful in the attempt. This shows that it is highly dependent upon the capabilities of the animal being pursued relative to the capabilities of those in pursuit, and external characteristics don't always tell the story. The Indians were running down deer, sans modern running shoes, but had no chance of catching a horse.

You'd think , but there's one factor you're missing . Us , humans, have the unique ability to drink water and stay on the move at the same time. And unlike other mammals , our bodies do an excellent job of shedding heat. Much better than many other animals.

The socks and shoes ( especially modern running shoes ) are awful and prone to leading to injuries. If we'd grown up running around in a similar environment , the muscles in our feet and ankles would be so much more developed .

Quick point, I was a distance runner throughout school and early into my military . Later, I began to have tendonitis in my feet and knee issues. Turns out , I had flat feet and the solutions were thick insoles and different shoes. That was wrong. About 12 years ago , I had Dr. recommend that I run barefoot on a treadmill until my form changed and once I was running outside , to wear shoes that had the least amount of padding in the soles as possible. That was a game changer.

I could run down a rabbit when I was young.

I always remember a nutrition class I had back in the 70's where our prof said that the closest population in following the recommended food pyramid for protein, fiber, carbs, etc was the Kalajari bushmen.

I now can’t run down a turtle lol.

Caught a many a rabbit in the wheat, barley or oat stubble as the combine got down to the final round or two. And I was almost always barefoot by that time of year. Only wore shoes to church June thru Sept and my feet stayed tough year round.

In 1755, the natives had been making very good use of horses for nearly 200 years.

I understand the water thing and that makes a difference for sure. Still, while this may work at certain times with certain animals under certain conditions, relying on it as a primary means of securing protein seems like a good way to go extinct. Think about the amount of calories expended in relation to what you get in return once you share that animal with an entire tribe. I'll bet a lot more of them were killed in ambush than by running them down.

I'm no expert in this by any means, I'm just saying there are a lot of flaws in what this video is depicting.

I have no doubt they use ambush techniques. They use poison arrows also instead of powerful bows with stone points. The San people are small and thin. I doubt they burn as many calories as we do. Even on a stressful hunt like that. I suspect the whole tribe just packs up and goes to the meat. The hunter may have already gorged himself on tongue or liver when they get there. Being a herd animal my GUESS is once separated out they run in a big circle.

When I was younger I could run down to McDonald's catch a burger and fries. Lot younger folks I see now days. Look like they have a heart attack if had to run from the couch to the refrigerator. Lmao..

Mac

Killing it with a dull spear to the shoulder blade just didn't look right.

I wondered about the spear thing also. Again my GUESS is the whole thing was recreated so it could be filmed.

Charles Barkley once responded to a claim that Manute Bol, a 7' 6" former 76ers teammate and formerly from the plains of Africa once killed a lion with a spear by saying, "I don't know if that is true, but I have seen him kill the basketball rim with a free throw."

More about 100 years I believe. The horse made its way onto the American southwestern landscape from the Spanish. The Spanish enslaved the Pueblo Indians, the Pueblo revolted against the Spanish in the mid 1600s, driving them back down into present day Mexico. When the Spanish were driven out, they left behind their sheep, cattle, and a couple thousand horses. The Pueblo had no use for the horses at that time being more of a sedentary tribe and they turned them loose onto the Southern Plains. The first tribes, I believe, to domestic these now wild mustangs would be the Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and later the Sioux. Probably in the very late 1600s- early 1700s. In about a 100 year span, the plains Indians were turned from sort of sedentary tribes into horse warriors who could migrate with their families with the movement of the buffalo. It was one of the most drastic and quickest conversions of society in the history of the Earth.

"In 1755, the natives had been making very good use of horses for nearly 200 years."

In the southwest yes, but not in the Great Lakes region. The Smith account is an interesting read.

The standard belief is that the spanish brought horses to north america in the mid-1500's but they may have been here much sooner. Ten ships of Welsh settlers colonized the south-central United states in 1170 and may have had horses with them.

I would love to read it, do you know where it can be found?

You can read it on-line here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27244.0001.001?view=toc

Now I know where them hand signs the gang bangers use came from.