Anyone have a tldr on the antelope chase?
The story about the antelope, featured in This American Life, follows Scott Carrier and his brother's attempt to prove a theory that humans evolved to be endurance runners, capable of outrunning animals like pronghorn antelope over long distances. Scott's brother, a biology student, hypothesizes that early humans could have run down big game without weapons by relying on their endurance rather than speed.
In the 1980s, they go to Wyoming to test this theory by attempting to chase down antelope in the desert. The idea is to exhaust the antelope by making them run in the heat for a long period. Despite their efforts, the antelope consistently outmaneuver and outrun them, blending into herds and splitting into different directions, making it impossible to follow just one.
Scott reflects on the challenges of the endeavor, the limitations of modern life, and the connection to a primitive way of living. Despite failing to catch an antelope, the story highlights the persistence of the human spirit and the desire to understand our ancient origins.
Humans have the best long-distance endurance of any land animal in the world, at least in hot dry environments; it's why we have so little hair and so many sweat glands, among other things. There are still African savanna tribes that successfully practice endurance hunting.
But I'd venture to guess that "Scott Carrier is incapable of running down an antelope" does not imply "humans are incapable of endurance hunting, full stop."
It involves a lot of skills that need to be honed (tracking, long distance jogging, planning, coordination without tech, herding, not getting injured by other wildlife in the process, etc) and it requires strategic planning ahead of time.
It's not to say that it's impossible, just that it's a skill that takes over a decade (part time) to do in a way that you have a decent chance of succeeding at. If however this was all you did day in and day out and you had someone experienced guiding you through the process each day, it'd probably take half the time and you'd be successful at the end.