Can a human outrun every other animal over an extemely long distance?

Question

Ok,
Soo, I remember hearing a professor tell me that "in a desert, where an animal has nowhere to hide, a human could catch nearly every animal over a long period of time." I guess the argument was that we have more stamina than every animal and we could just follow their tracks and eventually catch up with them. Is there any truth to this? My coworkers are telling me there is no way we could catch an antelope.

Thanks,

Answer 1

There is one flaw in the professor's ideas - think about the reverse of you chasing the animals but instead the animals are chasing you. If a predatory animal like a lion was chasing you and it could sprint faster than you you would be dead and eaten before you had a chance to run "over a long period of time."

Answer 2

Well your professor was right to a certain extent. I watched a show on discovery about how Africans hunt animals like impalas etc, and thier method was literally to run the animal to death.... the man followed and tracked a Kudu(i think) for hours and hours and just kept chasing it and preventing it from resting, in the end he only had to walk up and stab the exhausted animal. The fact is that the man could carry water and food with him and so keep up his stamina and prevail over the kudu which was able to run faster but unable to stop and rest or drink etc because of the human doggedly pursuing it. However there are animals who can outmatch us in stamina like a wolf for example, they use the same hunting technique as we do on thier prey and if we chased them it would accomplish nothing because wolves can last longer than us stamina wise and can go weeks without food and days without rest. Most prey animals are fast sprinters but cannot go long distances, thus humans could through determination and tracking literally run an animal to death. Predators are different and most have the stamina required to do the same thing to thier prey as we do, thus running them to death would not work. You professor should have stated that we could catch nearly every prey animal over a long period of time, but the same tactics do not work on other predators.

Answer 3

It depends on the animal. It's true that humans are very good at traveling long distances at relatively low speeds (which makes sense since many other bipedal animals alive today - think ostriches and roadrunners - are consumate walkers and distance runners), but so are certain other animals. The fastest humans can hit almost 25 mph - but that is a sprint, and like the cheetah no human could keep that up for very long.

So a human hunter could "dog" certain animals to exhaustion - if he could either keep the prey in sight or be able to track it, especially if the animal is a very fast sprinter with little stamina, like a cheetah or gazelle.

But for other animals like wolves, hyenas, other dogs (you could jog a dog to death, but that's because many of our modern breeds are nothing like wolves in size, shape and build, and also we tend to run on pavement, which is hard on animals' feet. And lastly, some people are stupid enough to take a dog for a run in the middle of a hot sunny day!) we wouldn't hold a candle.

These types of predators (and there are prey animals that can do the same) take the slow and steady approach - a clan of hyenas might go after a wildebeast at a modest speed of around 20-25 mph, but they can keep that speed for miles and hours. Similarily, a man running at a moderate speed of, say, 10 mph, could in the same way exhaust certain animals - but also human hunters did the same thing as wolves - hunting in groups, which means if one hunter tires there are others to take his place.

So your professor is right in some ways, but this does not hold true for all animals.

Answer 4

...or a horse, or a cheetah, or a zebra, or any number of other animals. The fast ones could get so far ahead that they could stop and rest for an hour before you came close to catching up, so stamina isn't that helfpul. And a horse (among others) has much more stamina than any human.
Sorry, no -- lots of animals could outrun us and get away clean.

Answer 5

not unless the human can run over 100 miles an hour....does that mean a human can catch a cheetah (they have been clocked at 70 miles an hour for short distances) if they chose to run from a human? I think not. Plus if we were to chase an animal we would either be too exhausted to do anything to it when we caught up to it so it would get us or by the time we caught up to it it would be recharged and ready for another sprint.

Answer 6

A Momma bear went 185 miles in 72 hours

Answer 7

Yes, a human can outrun a cheetah over an extremely long distance. These villagers did so.

Answer 8

Supposedly humans can walk any animal to death. Certainly this is true of dogs, as many a dog has died from going jogging with their owner.

I heard that some people in Africa hunt gazelles by just walking towards it until the gazelle drops dead from fear and exhaustion.

Answer 9

I'd like to see your professor put his theory to the test.

Answer 10

Is he a proffessor of stupidity by any chance? Because that is the most stupid thing I have ever heard.