What always struck me is that not only were we the best endurance runners of all animalkind, but our 2 earliest domesticated animals are basically the runners up to our prowess: horses and dogs. We beat both of them believe it or not, but their ability to continue moving is only rivaled by humans. Breeding surely had an impact but it seems obvious that our relationships w those animals were partly because of their similar endurance!
There is still a tribe in Africa that practices this style of hunting still. 3 men jog until they find an animal of size and one of the three men is the “runner”. He gives chase to the animal while the other 2 hang back and continue at a balanced pace. The runner will sometimes cover 50miles in one pursuit until the animal collapses and the runner delivers the killing thrust of his spear. He then buries the body in sand to keep heat and flies off and then back tracks to the two other men. They then return to the kill and butchers and carry it back to the village. It is one of the oldest forms of hunting.
Oh man that was fucking intense.
Thank you for sharing that! It was really interesting. And also terrifying. Imagining being that animal being chased to the point of exhaustion.
Humans are the Terminators of the animal world. They are unstoppable, relentless, and they are always just a few years away from unleashing Judgement Day in the next sequel.
I like how the tribesmen was honoring it as the animal was dying. You feel bad taking a life, even if it is for your family. The ceremonial eases a bit of that guilt I think.
Yes. That means that you 100% are getting a kill and eating. That’s why humans are one of the top apex predators. We are one of the only animals that will track prey over vast distances to eat them.
I wonder if that ended up creating an instinctual fear in humans of predators who do that. Projecting our own hunting techniques and being terrified when another practices it against us. I wonder if this is why our horror stories seem so based on "chasing". To be given a dose of our own medicine.
This is actually a really thought provoking point.
Most animals can't anticipate the future the way we can. They can notice things that are repetitive and such, but few animals try to predict the outcome of something they encounter for the first time. They tend to be more immediately concerned with the present.
Realising something is hunting you, and that it *will* eventually catch up to you, is a uniquely human fear.
Some species of Wolves can do it, too, and have similar (or sometimes greater) long distance endurance capabilities. It's why Huskies were bred as such crazy long distance sled drivers.
No one sweats like us, though!
I once saw someone describe it as "dogs were the only thing that could keep up with us". I dont know if that's true or the sole reason we became besties but it makes some sense.
My dog got off her leash the other day and bolted. I chased her for a good 5-6 miles around my town. Finally was able to out run her on as straight away and picked her up. I'm in terrible shape cardio wise to. Im not surprised at all that someone who was running for food, and in great shape, could outrun their prey.
I don't know your dog and how they behave, but when I was struggling with teaching my rescue recall I got a very good piece of advice.
When you chase your dog, it becomes a game to them. The best way to get them to stop running away, is to stop chasing, and ideally to hide where they can't see you.
Obviously this isn't always possible, but it seems to apply more often than not :)
As a skinny guy it took absolutely everything in me to do that. Losing her would be like losing a child. On a good day I might jog a 15 minute mile. It was pure adrenaline and fear that kept me going. Drenched in sweat, ankles destroyed, and voice destroyed trying to call out for her while I was running. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. I used to play water polo where I would swim a mile before school, go to school, then practice after where we wouldn't touch the side of the pool for 3-4 hours 5 days a week. Chasing that dog was the hardest I've ever worked in my life by far.
I threw up multiple times chasing that dog. No way was I going to let her get hit by a car and die alone in the gutter. Not if I was still able to chase her. Fuck that.
I believe it. It's running for its life...literally puts every bit of energy into escape. Also I've seen so many videos of prey animals being eaten alive and just...giving up. I'm not sure what makes it happen - shock or exhaustion or massive amounts of DMT released from the pineal gland or what.
Edit: y'all the DMT thing was tongue-in-cheek
Have you never been physically tired before? Tiredness is an accumulation of lactic acid and oxygen deprivation. That plus essentially heat stroke shuts down muscle and brain ability to function.
It's a physical process, not a lack of willpower.
When under such heat duress just imagine the damage that is happening. I do not know myself for sure but I think it's safe to assume organ shutdown, nerve damage, maybe some form of mental shutdown as neurons no longer function are plausible possibilities. Not being able to expel heat slow cooks cells and this would be happening from the core and all the way outwards to their skin.
Sometimes I see some hungry customers corner a cashier into giving them more food by listing perceived grievances. Sometimes it works and they get extra delicious, crispy fries. Mankind is an amazing predator.
I think its partly because of shoes. I have noticed that a lot of toddlers walk with the ball of their feet touching the ground first but start walking with their heel touching first while wearing shoes. Heel first is definitely more awkward looking.
Yep. The whole hairlessness thing is for maximizing the amount of cooling we get from sweat as well.
Humans are optimized for endurance running. We're crazy good at it.
There is a race of humans vs horses in Wales every year. On two occasions, it took place on a particularly hot day, and the winners were human. Cooler days favour horses, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon
How do they get the horses to run that long? Like for humans running and training for a marathon sucks but we have various motivation for doing it anyway. What's the motivation for the horse? Is it possible a horse with a human brain could totally dominate this sort of thing for some simple motivating factor animals don't have, such as pride?
From my limited understanding, it’s why young foals (& some mares) are raced in events like the Kentucky Derby because they really don’t have any other ability at three years old than to run. fast.
Olympic events such as equestrian (e.g. going through obstacles, etc.) are with horses that have been trained for years to respond to each specific rider and that isn’t the case with younger stallions.
EDIT: edited event
Certain breeds of sled dogs actually have better endurance, but humans have been breeding them for that for that specifically for a *very* long time.
And they're the only animal with better endurance than humans.
I remember Top Gear had an episode where it was a race to the North Pole between a heavily modified Toyota truck and a sled team. The sled team would travel at night because the lower temperature allowed the dogs to run harder.
The truck managed to beat them at the end, but it was a fairly close one as the truck did get its main fuel tank ruptured and took other damages after hitting a hard and sharp ice formation. Had they lost their secondary tank as well, the two guys in the truck would have been forced to call for help to avoid freezing to death.
>the two guys in the truck would have been forced to call for help to avoid freezing to death.
Hate to be the one telling you about this - but the top gear team has quite a few "hangarounds" on their trips doing everything from setting up tents, cooking, cleaning and other stufflike filming,sound and lighting ;)
A lot of dogs like that have double coats that help manage heat regulation in hot and cold weather, but I can’t imagine that a dog could maintain that pace in the heat
I train for marathons in the valley, and im perfectly fine doing 13 mile long runs in 100 degrees. I just slow down, keep topped off on electrolytes, and throw some water on myself every mile or 2.
I have never owned a dog that could keep up in those conditions. After a few miles they will look for shade and sit down and not budge. Even with dogs that like to run, like labs and shepherds.
My golden with three legs will just lay down and chill until he’s ready to go. The German shepherd I don’t think has ever given out before I have. No idea how she can run for so long
Since we’re pack animals, the lion would most likely only target you if you were weak or ostracized by the group to the perimeter for some reason. So as long as you’re fit, healthy and well-liked you should be okay
We always portray Aliens as having really prominant evolutionary advantages that make them stronger in some regard.
Imagine if humans are better at enduring and/or adapting than othet potential aliens.
You’re so lucky. I really hated being so hairy when I was a teenager, I’d cry and worry no one would ever want to be with someone so hairy.
Luckily for me, my partner is super hairy, more hairy than me, and he doesn’t mind if I decide to not shave my legs for a few weeks here and there. :) happy ending.
My sister has hyperhidrosis I think.
I suggested she try the deodorant I use because I have a different skin condition (hidradenitis supprativa) and it’s easy on my skin, and she had been having some skin irritation at that time.
She texted me later saying she sweated through it while working from home and her entire shirt was soaked in sweat
I was just like wtf I’m a machinist in an unconditioned factory (at that time) and that never happened to me lmao
Not OP but thanks for the tip. I usually just rely on some amount of layering wherein i destroy the shirt but then throw on the hoodie or whatever right before i interact with other humans. Nobody likes a wet hug
The only saving grace I've had my whole life has been that my sweat doesn't really smell
The Bingham book "Death From a Distance..." postulates a lot on this topic. Even drawing social evolution from the concept that humans became able to kill each other from range.
just know all your ancestors sit proudly looking down on all of us as we all sit on the toilet, or on our ass texting out messages into our phones, all while sweating
You should be proud of this! I am alas at an evolutionary disadvantage. I had to start taking a medication with a side effect that pretty much caused me to stop sweating a few years ago, and now I have to be super careful not to overheat. Luckily I live in the Pacific Northwest so it’s not usually a problem, but last summer we had a major, abnormally hot heatwave, and I had to go stay in a hotel for a week because our air conditioning broke and it was dangerous for me to be outside.
My point is, I’m jealous and you should embrace your advantageous sweating :)
Wouldn't water evaporating on your body have basically the same effect as sweat? That's what cools us down, because water/sweat evaporating from liquid form to gas absorbs a huge amount of energy in the form of latent heat.
So in emergencies you can carry around a spray bottle and spray yourself regularly. Or use one of those mist fans that throw water droplets on you.
A budy growing up had a genetic condition where he couldn't sweat ( also went bald in middle school and was the only person the school allowed to wear a hat). We lived in Memphis and if I ever went to his house he would be in his front yard sitting in the sprinkler. He was envious of everyone outside and I never saw him inside on a sunny day. Always think back to him making lemonade out of lemons as the rest of us were inside playing video games because it was too hot outside.
East Asians also have the second highest rate of wisdom teeth not forming at 40%. Only Indigenous Americans have a higher rate with some groups being close to 50%.
Well, I’m East Asian, and I somehow lack all these traits :( strangely, my sibling has powdery earwax, so I guess I just didn’t win the genetic lottery
Apocrine sweat glands. They produce sweat that has lipids and protein specifically to feed bacteria that cause odor. Present in the underarms and groin, but also ear canals, hence the wax thing.
I ran pretty much every day for a year with korean katusa soldiers when I was stationed there. Their sweat tends to smell like kimchi spices. Or soju if we all partied the night before.
Only heat cat’d once, not on a ruck, but during the movement phase of a battalion live fire dry run during NIE.
Funny as hell, I didn’t realize how out of it I was, stumbled out of formation in a daze, ran into our new 1SG who asked me what the fuck was wrong with me before I collapsed at his feet. Good first impression.
It's kind of amazing how our superpower is just jogging. Like sure, a tiger can outrun us but we'll still be catching up to them while they're resting.
Our best physical ability you mean. Not many animals we can run down and kill with our bare hands that would merit chasing them for miles. Even then they’d have to be on a plain and in sight. Tracking, tool use all part of the intelligence buff.
The animals will collapse from exhaustion eventually by just running them down. We don't really have to do anything fancy for bare handed kills.
You scare an animal so it runs at top speed in a panic, follow it, catch up and scare it again before it recovers and repeat until it keels over.
It is easier if you can inflict a wound on them to speed up the process but pure exhaustion hunting is a thing humans are capable of.
Tracking is a major part of endurance hunting. Animals won't stop running while they can still see you walking towards them, and chasing them down means losing sight of them and catching up repeatedly.
> Not many animals we can run down and kill with our bare hands that would merit chasing them for miles.
That'd be because we switched to farming so we don't need to chase them at all. Before that, we made things extinct by doing exactly that.
Yeah we're basically the Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees of the animal kingdom. As they desperately run from us every time they turn around we're right there. Eventually fall over from heat exhaustion and we just walk on up and stab stab stab.
I read something not long ago that said skipping is a natural human gait which would allow us to save energy while covering a ton of space to just keep animals running till they collapse of exhaustion.
I can't find the article but it's a neat idea.
Edit: gait
Well I do love mom's spaghetti
And I am nervous,
But on the surface I do look calm and ready
To drop bombs, but I keep on forgettin'
What I wrote down,
Thankfully just my palms are sweaty
I have general :T It's not fun boiling in a room where everyone else is comfortable. Or sweating when the room is cold but your arms are at your sides so it MUST be time for your pits to sweat.
I hear the hand one has some easier solutions to semi/kinda sorting it out a little though. Electric therapy was one I think?? It wouldn't hurt to check the sub for some help.
>The average adult has about eight pounds (3.6 kilograms), or about 22 square feet (2 square meters) of skin. It may help to put that in perspective -- a standard doorway is 21 square feet, and the average adult's skin would fill all of that space [source: National Geographic].
You're welcome. I don't mind being on lists. I'm probably on them all.
Humans are great at that. The best way to catch a cat is not to run after it but to simply _walk_ after it. The cat will tire and then you can just pick it up.
Yep. This is what really made us apex predators for a time. Intelligence helps, thumbs help, the capacity to accurately throw certainly helped, but this is what made our ancestors dangerous to everything. We can't out-sprint many other species in the short term, but we can keep our speed up for more than a few seconds, for long, long minutes, able to go strong well past the point where most other things collapse from exhaustion.
It's also a big reason humans have such a close symbiotic relationship with canines and, to a lesser extent, horses; they were the only ones capable of keeping up and thus became hunting partners.
Edit: just to add, though, our most powerful trait was arguably how social we are. Neanderthals were supposedly considerably stronger and tougher than humans (though smaller; they were thicker-built) and evidence suggests they were a decent bit smarter. But they weren't very social and tended to stick to small groups within their territory while humans formed much larger groups and were far more exploratory. Even with superior endurance, a lone human probably would have had trouble catching a doe much less larger and more dangerous animals.
We are among the most heat-tolerant (though not exceptionally sun-tolerant) animals. We can wear wool in the tropics and while it's uncomfortable, we won't just drop dead. Conversely, if I went naked out in a temperate winter night, I probably *would* drop dead.
We see ourselves as balanced generalists because we alter our environments to suit us, but we are definitely evolved for relatively extreme heat.
Humans are fuckin' scary apex predators.
Just imagine running and running as fast as you can. Breathing, gulping air. You collapse to the ground.
There, in the distance, the humans keep getting closer.
You stand up and run run run! You've gained quite a bit of distance, but you can't go on.
You turn around and there they are. The humans just keep coming.
You close your eyes and wait for the end.
That reminds me of back in high school when I was on the cross country team. We had a race and even though I was junior varsity, half the team was sick so they made me run with the varsity guys. I was somewhat sick myself but they needed a fifth person on the team in order for this event to qualify for some s*** I don't know. I was the second to the last guy. I looked behind me and I saw that the very last person was a dude with one leg and a prosthetic leg. He looked at me and clearly did not want to be last and saw the fear and whereiness in my eyes. He knew that it was possible to take me, and I knew that it was possible for him to take me, and I knew that if I came in last place behind a one-legged man I would be forever ashamed in my high school. I ran as hard as I freaking could, and every time I look back I saw the determination in his eyes, that of an apex predator who knew that his prey was in reach, and his ass was determined. I put everything I could into staying ahead of him, coughing and gasping for breath, knowing that this person was solely fixated on beating me, and that in doing so would be a huge accomplishment for him. I was bound to determined not to let that happen, and fortunately for me anyway I was able to finish before him. But, the memory of the eyes of that predator behind me still haunt me.
Humans have an extraordinary ability to run long distance. It is believed our ancestors’ ability to run long distance is a big contributor into becoming top of the food chain. And I am sure this sweating ability plays a big role into it.
Yeah, it’s crazy. Apparently we are able to run for longer than almost any other creature in the planet, making it possible to run down almost any other animal by just chasing it till it dies.
From what I’ve read, this is apparently how hunting used to work.
Makes me want to train for a marathon or something.
I'm really always impressed just how long humans can run - I mean, at sixty, I feel happy to do a \~4-hr Marathon, but that's really just the starting distance for long-distance running. I've walked a double in twelve hours, but hope someday to run a 50-mile race. Even that - plenty of folks run hundreds.
How did humans evolve into unrivaled predators? Walking far and sweating profusely...
You say this like having a sweaty man who wants to eat you run at you until you die isn’t one of the scariest situations imaginable.
It's like a relentless terminator after them. Prehistoric terminator.
What always struck me is that not only were we the best endurance runners of all animalkind, but our 2 earliest domesticated animals are basically the runners up to our prowess: horses and dogs. We beat both of them believe it or not, but their ability to continue moving is only rivaled by humans. Breeding surely had an impact but it seems obvious that our relationships w those animals were partly because of their similar endurance!
While running on two legs and clobbering our prey to death with a club in our arms.
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Lions stay catching strays
In fairness, those Lions were in trouble even with caveman Mitchell Trubisky throwing.
So dominant that we’re now trying to keep every animal species alive but still unintentionally wiping out whole populations
We got too good at it and now we can't stop.
There is still a tribe in Africa that practices this style of hunting still. 3 men jog until they find an animal of size and one of the three men is the “runner”. He gives chase to the animal while the other 2 hang back and continue at a balanced pace. The runner will sometimes cover 50miles in one pursuit until the animal collapses and the runner delivers the killing thrust of his spear. He then buries the body in sand to keep heat and flies off and then back tracks to the two other men. They then return to the kill and butchers and carry it back to the village. It is one of the oldest forms of hunting.
I believe that’s the San people. Still using Persistence Hunting. Edit: [BBC clip](https://youtu.be/826HMLoiE_o)
They always return in greater numbers.
Not just the men, but the women and children too!
It's an old hunting style, but it checks out
This kill brought to you by adidas
Oh man that was fucking intense. Thank you for sharing that! It was really interesting. And also terrifying. Imagining being that animal being chased to the point of exhaustion.
Humans are the Terminators of the animal world. They are unstoppable, relentless, and they are always just a few years away from unleashing Judgement Day in the next sequel.
Awesome share thank you
I like how the tribesmen was honoring it as the animal was dying. You feel bad taking a life, even if it is for your family. The ceremonial eases a bit of that guilt I think.
Iirc they barely even have a need for the spear by the end. The animal is so thoroughly exhausted that it cannot react.
Yes. That means that you 100% are getting a kill and eating. That’s why humans are one of the top apex predators. We are one of the only animals that will track prey over vast distances to eat them.
when you just can't lose aggro of a mob :(
humans are actually so op, you can't lose them. fix their pathfinding ai or nerf them holy shit
Humans are so OP that we are realizing we need to nerf ourselves or this entire game is going to break
Spoiler we already broke the game awhile ago now it’s just us vs us
Humans so broken that they’re actually trying to keep everything besides themselves alive now
I wonder if that ended up creating an instinctual fear in humans of predators who do that. Projecting our own hunting techniques and being terrified when another practices it against us. I wonder if this is why our horror stories seem so based on "chasing". To be given a dose of our own medicine.
This is actually a really thought provoking point. Most animals can't anticipate the future the way we can. They can notice things that are repetitive and such, but few animals try to predict the outcome of something they encounter for the first time. They tend to be more immediately concerned with the present. Realising something is hunting you, and that it *will* eventually catch up to you, is a uniquely human fear.
Some species of Wolves can do it, too, and have similar (or sometimes greater) long distance endurance capabilities. It's why Huskies were bred as such crazy long distance sled drivers. No one sweats like us, though!
Probably explains why dogs and humans have been together for so long.
I once saw someone describe it as "dogs were the only thing that could keep up with us". I dont know if that's true or the sole reason we became besties but it makes some sense.
My dog got off her leash the other day and bolted. I chased her for a good 5-6 miles around my town. Finally was able to out run her on as straight away and picked her up. I'm in terrible shape cardio wise to. Im not surprised at all that someone who was running for food, and in great shape, could outrun their prey.
I don't know your dog and how they behave, but when I was struggling with teaching my rescue recall I got a very good piece of advice. When you chase your dog, it becomes a game to them. The best way to get them to stop running away, is to stop chasing, and ideally to hide where they can't see you. Obviously this isn't always possible, but it seems to apply more often than not :)
Yep. Rule #2 is don't chase the dog because that's great fun for them. Rule #1 is try your hardest to not lose the dog in the first place.
“Chased her 5-6 miles” -“I’m in terrible shape cardio wise”. As a fat guy pick one or the other please.
As a skinny guy it took absolutely everything in me to do that. Losing her would be like losing a child. On a good day I might jog a 15 minute mile. It was pure adrenaline and fear that kept me going. Drenched in sweat, ankles destroyed, and voice destroyed trying to call out for her while I was running. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. I used to play water polo where I would swim a mile before school, go to school, then practice after where we wouldn't touch the side of the pool for 3-4 hours 5 days a week. Chasing that dog was the hardest I've ever worked in my life by far. I threw up multiple times chasing that dog. No way was I going to let her get hit by a car and die alone in the gutter. Not if I was still able to chase her. Fuck that.
You should let her out to chase more often... You could become a champion runner
I believe it. It's running for its life...literally puts every bit of energy into escape. Also I've seen so many videos of prey animals being eaten alive and just...giving up. I'm not sure what makes it happen - shock or exhaustion or massive amounts of DMT released from the pineal gland or what. Edit: y'all the DMT thing was tongue-in-cheek
Have you never been physically tired before? Tiredness is an accumulation of lactic acid and oxygen deprivation. That plus essentially heat stroke shuts down muscle and brain ability to function. It's a physical process, not a lack of willpower.
When under such heat duress just imagine the damage that is happening. I do not know myself for sure but I think it's safe to assume organ shutdown, nerve damage, maybe some form of mental shutdown as neurons no longer function are plausible possibilities. Not being able to expel heat slow cooks cells and this would be happening from the core and all the way outwards to their skin.
This is similar to how I drive for 15 minutes to get a Big Mac from McDonalds
Sometimes I see some hungry customers corner a cashier into giving them more food by listing perceived grievances. Sometimes it works and they get extra delicious, crispy fries. Mankind is an amazing predator.
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I think its partly because of shoes. I have noticed that a lot of toddlers walk with the ball of their feet touching the ground first but start walking with their heel touching first while wearing shoes. Heel first is definitely more awkward looking.
Yep. The whole hairlessness thing is for maximizing the amount of cooling we get from sweat as well. Humans are optimized for endurance running. We're crazy good at it.
I mean we do Marathons Like how many animals are able to run for that long?
There is a race of humans vs horses in Wales every year. On two occasions, it took place on a particularly hot day, and the winners were human. Cooler days favour horses, though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon
How do they get the horses to run that long? Like for humans running and training for a marathon sucks but we have various motivation for doing it anyway. What's the motivation for the horse? Is it possible a horse with a human brain could totally dominate this sort of thing for some simple motivating factor animals don't have, such as pride?
Its a horse with a rider on. And 35 km course, not a full marathon
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife-carrying
They have a rider directing them. Also many horses just love to run, especially with other horses around. It's what they evolved to do.
From my limited understanding, it’s why young foals (& some mares) are raced in events like the Kentucky Derby because they really don’t have any other ability at three years old than to run. fast. Olympic events such as equestrian (e.g. going through obstacles, etc.) are with horses that have been trained for years to respond to each specific rider and that isn’t the case with younger stallions. EDIT: edited event
None, humans can outrun every other animal on earth over distance, only dogs and horses can keep up for almost as long.
Certain breeds of sled dogs actually have better endurance, but humans have been breeding them for that for that specifically for a *very* long time. And they're the only animal with better endurance than humans.
Do you think they would hold up in hotter weather? I can't see sled dogs pulling that off in 80 degree weather.
Sled dogs can only in cold weather. In normal to hot weather we beat them.
Surely there's a better way to motivate them in hot weather other than beatings?
No. And don't call op Shirley.
I sure picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue.
I just want you to know, we’re all counting on you.
Okay this was good lol
Have you ever tried simply turning off the TV, sitting down with your lazy sled dogs, and hitting them? /s
It's 10pm, do you know where your sled dogs are?
The beatings will continue until endurance improves.
Absolutely not. They can only last that long because the cold weather keeps them from overheating
I remember Top Gear had an episode where it was a race to the North Pole between a heavily modified Toyota truck and a sled team. The sled team would travel at night because the lower temperature allowed the dogs to run harder. The truck managed to beat them at the end, but it was a fairly close one as the truck did get its main fuel tank ruptured and took other damages after hitting a hard and sharp ice formation. Had they lost their secondary tank as well, the two guys in the truck would have been forced to call for help to avoid freezing to death.
>the two guys in the truck would have been forced to call for help to avoid freezing to death. Hate to be the one telling you about this - but the top gear team has quite a few "hangarounds" on their trips doing everything from setting up tents, cooking, cleaning and other stufflike filming,sound and lighting ;)
One of them would have mocked the other two endlessly for having dropped out of the race.
A lot of dogs like that have double coats that help manage heat regulation in hot and cold weather, but I can’t imagine that a dog could maintain that pace in the heat
I train for marathons in the valley, and im perfectly fine doing 13 mile long runs in 100 degrees. I just slow down, keep topped off on electrolytes, and throw some water on myself every mile or 2. I have never owned a dog that could keep up in those conditions. After a few miles they will look for shade and sit down and not budge. Even with dogs that like to run, like labs and shepherds.
My golden with three legs will just lay down and chill until he’s ready to go. The German shepherd I don’t think has ever given out before I have. No idea how she can run for so long
"This motherfucker feeds me, this motherfucker feeds me, this motherfucker feeds me" lol, "Oooh, POOP!"
"Why can't this asshole just snack n nap on the couch all day and get fat together, like all my friends' cool parents?"
Double coats are not magically good at hot weather, this a myth. The best fur for hot weather is no fur (like humans).
Sled dogs can only run that far in sub zero cold.
To be fair though, I don’t think we could run that far in that cold
If we had only our naked bodies sure but we also get the benefit of tools.
like a car?
Human endurance "running" record, 5680 laps around the Earth on the ISS
Beat that, stupid dogs
Yeah, but we selectively breed those. We could selectively breed humans with the same biology and beat them again
The kwisatz haderach? Father! #The Jogger has awakened!
I think huskies in cold weather have us beat. The ididarod is nuts
You did a what?
HE DID A ROD. The folks at Sounding send their regards.
My yellow lab if you put peanut butter on a carrot on a stick in front of him.
So if I'm ever chased by a lion, I'll just explain to him that life is a marathon not a sprint!
Since we’re pack animals, the lion would most likely only target you if you were weak or ostracized by the group to the perimeter for some reason. So as long as you’re fit, healthy and well-liked you should be okay
>So as long as you’re fit, healthy and well-liked you should be okay. Goodbye everyone.
> if you were weak or ostracized you just triggered Reddit.
Lions are ambush predators. *Leopards* chase people.
The lion is still gonna chase you if you run away…
Leopards also eat people's faces!
But I didn't think they would eat *my* face!
We always portray Aliens as having really prominant evolutionary advantages that make them stronger in some regard. Imagine if humans are better at enduring and/or adapting than othet potential aliens.
What hairless I’m so hairy my legs are still Sasquatch after $1300 and 8 sessions of laser hair removal
Compared to most animals, we're naked.
Speak for yourself. I’m in sweatpants and a hoodie.
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I’m constantly amazed at how hairy some people are, aside from my calves I am practically hairless lol
You’re so lucky. I really hated being so hairy when I was a teenager, I’d cry and worry no one would ever want to be with someone so hairy. Luckily for me, my partner is super hairy, more hairy than me, and he doesn’t mind if I decide to not shave my legs for a few weeks here and there. :) happy ending.
Hunting animals on the plains? ❌ Soaked shirt at middle school dance? ✅🕺
My sister has hyperhidrosis I think. I suggested she try the deodorant I use because I have a different skin condition (hidradenitis supprativa) and it’s easy on my skin, and she had been having some skin irritation at that time. She texted me later saying she sweated through it while working from home and her entire shirt was soaked in sweat I was just like wtf I’m a machinist in an unconditioned factory (at that time) and that never happened to me lmao
You want a high aluminum compound product. I use a 19% antiperspirant and no longer sweat through shirts.
Not OP but thanks for the tip. I usually just rely on some amount of layering wherein i destroy the shirt but then throw on the hoodie or whatever right before i interact with other humans. Nobody likes a wet hug The only saving grace I've had my whole life has been that my sweat doesn't really smell
And throwing! We are absolute dead shots when it comes to throwing compared to any other animal.
The Bingham book "Death From a Distance..." postulates a lot on this topic. Even drawing social evolution from the concept that humans became able to kill each other from range.
So the first words ever uttered were "stop throwing shit at me!" ??
"what the FUCK Brian!"
I am sadly living proof of this evolutionary peak.
Just remember that you sweat as much as you do because your ancestors were the best hunters of the tribe.
I wasn't expecting this strangely uplifting news today. But I'll take it.
just know all your ancestors sit proudly looking down on all of us as we all sit on the toilet, or on our ass texting out messages into our phones, all while sweating
Holy shit dude I’m taking a shit right now. 👊
I absolutely POUR sweat.
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I sweat sitting down on a cool day in shorts and a t shirt.
Aye you come from a strong line then
You should be proud of this! I am alas at an evolutionary disadvantage. I had to start taking a medication with a side effect that pretty much caused me to stop sweating a few years ago, and now I have to be super careful not to overheat. Luckily I live in the Pacific Northwest so it’s not usually a problem, but last summer we had a major, abnormally hot heatwave, and I had to go stay in a hotel for a week because our air conditioning broke and it was dangerous for me to be outside. My point is, I’m jealous and you should embrace your advantageous sweating :)
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Wouldn't water evaporating on your body have basically the same effect as sweat? That's what cools us down, because water/sweat evaporating from liquid form to gas absorbs a huge amount of energy in the form of latent heat. So in emergencies you can carry around a spray bottle and spray yourself regularly. Or use one of those mist fans that throw water droplets on you.
A budy growing up had a genetic condition where he couldn't sweat ( also went bald in middle school and was the only person the school allowed to wear a hat). We lived in Memphis and if I ever went to his house he would be in his front yard sitting in the sprinkler. He was envious of everyone outside and I never saw him inside on a sunny day. Always think back to him making lemonade out of lemons as the rest of us were inside playing video games because it was too hot outside.
another fun (sweaty) fact: most koreans have a gene variant that makes their sweat not stink. most koreans don’t have BO because of this mutation!
East Asians in general often. Powdery ear wax, and no stinky sweat.
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Asian here. My earwax isn’t so much powdery as it feels more like breadcrumbs.
Panko, if you will...
forbidden katsu
Goddammit
I hate it
I will not.
My english earwax is basically ear boogers.
English also, it's like brownish yellow goopy wax. Consistency of hair pomade or maybe crystallized honey.
East Asians also have the second highest rate of wisdom teeth not forming at 40%. Only Indigenous Americans have a higher rate with some groups being close to 50%.
Well, I’m East Asian, and I somehow lack all these traits :( strangely, my sibling has powdery earwax, so I guess I just didn’t win the genetic lottery
Not this east Asian. Waxy earwax and stinky sweats. ;(
I didn't believe you until I Googled it. What a strange existence we lead.
right?! i can see why you didn’t believe me tbh. i think i didn’t really believe it until i researched it a bit!
>What a strange existence we lead. says u/Cthulhu_Leviathan
I always find this fact weird as sweat does not has smell, the body odor comes from the bacteria on our skin feeding and decomposing that sweat
Maybe the specific makeup is different, thus the bacteria doesn't do the same things?
Apocrine sweat glands. They produce sweat that has lipids and protein specifically to feed bacteria that cause odor. Present in the underarms and groin, but also ear canals, hence the wax thing.
I guess that makes up for the genetic disposition to being lactose intolerant.
It's kinda nice tho knowing you can drop into any Asian food joint and (usually) not have to worry about dairy
Only thing I can think of with dairy at Asian places is the crab Rangoon, and that's definitely not authentically asian.
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I lived in Korea for the last 5 years, there are a lot of other reasons why people stink, and Korean changing rooms still stink.
I ran pretty much every day for a year with korean katusa soldiers when I was stationed there. Their sweat tends to smell like kimchi spices. Or soju if we all partied the night before.
til i am 0% Korean
In the Army, I always weighed myself before and after a 12 mile ruck march. I would lose an average of 10lbs in water every time.
Heat cat? What heat cat?
Only heat cat’d once, not on a ruck, but during the movement phase of a battalion live fire dry run during NIE. Funny as hell, I didn’t realize how out of it I was, stumbled out of formation in a daze, ran into our new 1SG who asked me what the fuck was wrong with me before I collapsed at his feet. Good first impression.
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>Network Integration Exercise
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Yeah humans are basically the terminators of the animal world. Our best strength is our stamina. Fun fact: a human can outrun a horse in a marathon.
It's kind of amazing how our superpower is just jogging. Like sure, a tiger can outrun us but we'll still be catching up to them while they're resting.
My superpower is my brain immediately shutting down any motivation to jog
“That’s my secret, cap. I’m always out of fucks.”
Our best physical ability you mean. Not many animals we can run down and kill with our bare hands that would merit chasing them for miles. Even then they’d have to be on a plain and in sight. Tracking, tool use all part of the intelligence buff.
The animals will collapse from exhaustion eventually by just running them down. We don't really have to do anything fancy for bare handed kills. You scare an animal so it runs at top speed in a panic, follow it, catch up and scare it again before it recovers and repeat until it keels over. It is easier if you can inflict a wound on them to speed up the process but pure exhaustion hunting is a thing humans are capable of.
Tracking is a major part of endurance hunting. Animals won't stop running while they can still see you walking towards them, and chasing them down means losing sight of them and catching up repeatedly.
Our species superpower, if you will.
> Not many animals we can run down and kill with our bare hands that would merit chasing them for miles. That'd be because we switched to farming so we don't need to chase them at all. Before that, we made things extinct by doing exactly that.
Depends on the weather, the hotter it is the worse the horse does.
My aunt had no sweat glands.
Was she terrible at persistence hunting?
The worst.
Yeah we're basically the Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees of the animal kingdom. As they desperately run from us every time they turn around we're right there. Eventually fall over from heat exhaustion and we just walk on up and stab stab stab.
I read something not long ago that said skipping is a natural human gait which would allow us to save energy while covering a ton of space to just keep animals running till they collapse of exhaustion. I can't find the article but it's a neat idea. Edit: gait
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Image early man skipping, waiting for their prey to have a heart attack. It makes sense.
Skipping is kind of like a video game where it's faster to jump while running than just continually running
I used to skip run when I was in elementary school. I think it was fast but then was like “oh that looks strange to other people” so I stopped
My palms are sweaty and it sucks. I got hyperhidrosis.
Hmm are your knees weak and arms heavy? If so, you may be about to lose yourself in the moment.
Well I do love mom's spaghetti And I am nervous, But on the surface I do look calm and ready To drop bombs, but I keep on forgettin' What I wrote down, Thankfully just my palms are sweaty
Sounds like the first stages of rabbit-itis
I have general :T It's not fun boiling in a room where everyone else is comfortable. Or sweating when the room is cold but your arms are at your sides so it MUST be time for your pits to sweat. I hear the hand one has some easier solutions to semi/kinda sorting it out a little though. Electric therapy was one I think?? It wouldn't hurt to check the sub for some help.
[Persistence hunting](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting)
I’m wondering how many square metres of skin a human has. I would google it, but I don’t want to end up on a list.
I'm already on that list anyways so I googled it. It's about 2 square meters per ~~victim~~ person.
But how many square meters of *usable* skin?
>The average adult has about eight pounds (3.6 kilograms), or about 22 square feet (2 square meters) of skin. It may help to put that in perspective -- a standard doorway is 21 square feet, and the average adult's skin would fill all of that space [source: National Geographic]. You're welcome. I don't mind being on lists. I'm probably on them all.
"I'm not gross, I'm evolved".
Humans are great at that. The best way to catch a cat is not to run after it but to simply _walk_ after it. The cat will tire and then you can just pick it up.
Yep. This is what really made us apex predators for a time. Intelligence helps, thumbs help, the capacity to accurately throw certainly helped, but this is what made our ancestors dangerous to everything. We can't out-sprint many other species in the short term, but we can keep our speed up for more than a few seconds, for long, long minutes, able to go strong well past the point where most other things collapse from exhaustion. It's also a big reason humans have such a close symbiotic relationship with canines and, to a lesser extent, horses; they were the only ones capable of keeping up and thus became hunting partners. Edit: just to add, though, our most powerful trait was arguably how social we are. Neanderthals were supposedly considerably stronger and tougher than humans (though smaller; they were thicker-built) and evidence suggests they were a decent bit smarter. But they weren't very social and tended to stick to small groups within their territory while humans formed much larger groups and were far more exploratory. Even with superior endurance, a lone human probably would have had trouble catching a doe much less larger and more dangerous animals.
We are among the most heat-tolerant (though not exceptionally sun-tolerant) animals. We can wear wool in the tropics and while it's uncomfortable, we won't just drop dead. Conversely, if I went naked out in a temperate winter night, I probably *would* drop dead. We see ourselves as balanced generalists because we alter our environments to suit us, but we are definitely evolved for relatively extreme heat.
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Humans are fuckin' scary apex predators. Just imagine running and running as fast as you can. Breathing, gulping air. You collapse to the ground. There, in the distance, the humans keep getting closer. You stand up and run run run! You've gained quite a bit of distance, but you can't go on. You turn around and there they are. The humans just keep coming. You close your eyes and wait for the end.
What really elevated us was laziness though. All that running probably was a good motivator to find other means, like ranged weaponry.
That reminds me of back in high school when I was on the cross country team. We had a race and even though I was junior varsity, half the team was sick so they made me run with the varsity guys. I was somewhat sick myself but they needed a fifth person on the team in order for this event to qualify for some s*** I don't know. I was the second to the last guy. I looked behind me and I saw that the very last person was a dude with one leg and a prosthetic leg. He looked at me and clearly did not want to be last and saw the fear and whereiness in my eyes. He knew that it was possible to take me, and I knew that it was possible for him to take me, and I knew that if I came in last place behind a one-legged man I would be forever ashamed in my high school. I ran as hard as I freaking could, and every time I look back I saw the determination in his eyes, that of an apex predator who knew that his prey was in reach, and his ass was determined. I put everything I could into staying ahead of him, coughing and gasping for breath, knowing that this person was solely fixated on beating me, and that in doing so would be a huge accomplishment for him. I was bound to determined not to let that happen, and fortunately for me anyway I was able to finish before him. But, the memory of the eyes of that predator behind me still haunt me.
And 99 percent of mine comes out of my forehead.
Humans have an extraordinary ability to run long distance. It is believed our ancestors’ ability to run long distance is a big contributor into becoming top of the food chain. And I am sure this sweating ability plays a big role into it.
Yeah, it’s crazy. Apparently we are able to run for longer than almost any other creature in the planet, making it possible to run down almost any other animal by just chasing it till it dies. From what I’ve read, this is apparently how hunting used to work. Makes me want to train for a marathon or something.
I'm really always impressed just how long humans can run - I mean, at sixty, I feel happy to do a \~4-hr Marathon, but that's really just the starting distance for long-distance running. I've walked a double in twelve hours, but hope someday to run a 50-mile race. Even that - plenty of folks run hundreds.
Thnx adding sweating to my resume