The Persistence Hunt

By Queuebot in Animals & Pets, Video Clips on May 8, 2009 at 3:39 pm


[YouTube - Link]


The can also be titled "running after an animal for hours until it collapses from exhaustion."  The persistence hunt is believed by some to be one of the most ancient methods of hunting. The tribesman of the Kalahari Desert tracks down a Kudu and literally chases after it for 8 hours until it surrenders out of sheer exhaustion.

– via nontt

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by non.


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  1. Xinavera
    May 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

    Amazing! I’m glad I’m not a kudu. Those San would make astonishing endurance runners.

  2. Gabriel
    May 8th, 2009 at 4:19 pm

    Isn’t this more cruel than dispatching it quickly?

    How does he get the carcass back to his tribe?

  3. JustFriends
    May 8th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    This is my dating philosophy.

  4. Rudy Ascott
    May 8th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    That’s how I get my Taco Bell.

  5. Peter Kelly
    May 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    This gives perspective on the easy availability of food in developed nations.
    That hunter earned his food and respected the animal he killed.
    Gabriel, It really must be hard work bringing back such a large animal. I don’t know how they would do it.
    As far as it being more cruel, I agree that the animal experienced more fear because of the duration of the chase, but it is more heartless to shoot a creature for pleasure.

  6. SenorMysterioso
    May 8th, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    The other two guys trail the runner and together they retrieve the prey

  7. Kalel
    May 8th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    No gnus is bad gnus.

  8. QuickLee
    May 8th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

    To “JustFriends”,

    Awesome comment, you must teach me more of this dating philosophy.

  9. Mytake
    May 8th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    I don’t see how to romanticize that. Fighting for survival is understandable, but not developing a more cost-beneficial hunting method over the years isn’t.

    I loathe hunting, but if you have to do it to feed youself etc be practical and grant the animal a swift death. Dying of exhaustion sounds awful and it’s also a waste of time and energy resources for the hunter.

  10. Matt M
    May 8th, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    I’m sorry, the guy only has a 5 foot spear to hunt with, how else is he going to get his food? He respected his kill and did what he had to do to survive. I find it more disgusting seeing men put corn down at the bottom of a tree, sit there until something walks up then dispatch it with a large rifle. American hunters would not last in an area like this because they are too lazy.

  11. LisaL
    May 8th, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    Doesn’t it kinda defeat the purpose.. at least for the guy that has to run it down. Wouldn’t running 8hrs after the thing burn up more calories than his share of the meat he’d get o_O

  12. Kevin
    May 8th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    You burn about 700 calories per hour running 6 mi/hr. Im guessing you would get at least about 80 lbs. of meat off of that animal. Just for comparison a 16 oz. steak has about 1200 calories.

    You would come out way ahead even if that animal only has about 800 calories per pound.

  13. MightyCow
    May 8th, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    This is essentially how my wife convinced me to marry her.

    She had the benefit of cookies.

  14. seefish3
    May 9th, 2009 at 8:00 am

    …”he respected his kill”

    Do you guys get this stuff from watching “Pocahontas” or what? Before the La-Z-Boy was invented, nobody spouted this philosophical claptrap about what you ate and how you got it.

    Chow down!

  15. Gregg Painter
    May 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am

    There was an article a few days ago speculating that the reason we have relatively short toes is that “persistence hunting” was our primary technique of hunting in our evolutionary past. Interesting that the practice still exists!

  16. ted
    May 9th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    The practice of having short toes?

  17. Creamy
    May 9th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Why don’t they just surround their preys and beat the undergrowth?

  18. DOJ
    May 10th, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    Is this from The Life of Mammals?

  19. ironite
    May 11th, 2009 at 11:36 am

    Where’s your PETA now, Bitches??

  20. Ian Nai
    Aug 10th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    Yes, this is how humans hunted for about 2 million years up until the late paleolithic period. Yes, we are animals that evolved to run. The only animals who can match us are dogs and horses (our best friends!), and we can still beat them over several days.

    “You don’t stop running because you get old and die, you get old and die because you stop running.”

  21. love it
    Apr 11th, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    great vid. Also love the troll character with the “do not feed the trolls” sign in the comment box.


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