6 ms·

In the animal kingdoms, humans are one of the animals with the highest running endurance. We suck at high speed, at climbing trees, at taking quick turns, but w

by Iv 14y ago

In the animal kingdoms, humans are one of the animals with the highest running endurance. We suck at high speed, at climbing trees, at taking quick turns, but we can distance any naturally evolved quadruped over a long run, simply because bipedal gait is more efficient. Horses, on the other hand, have been bred for qualities like endurance over the millenniums of human domestication. With any other animal, on 22 miles, my money would be on the human. Horses are maybe the only quadruped that stands a chance in a marathon.

city41 14y ago
Our ability to sweat and our lungs operating independent of our heart are also factors. The book Born to Run goes into this in great detail. It's a really good, and fascinating, read. Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known.
- wging 14y ago
  >Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known. While I like your enthusiasm, recall that most species that ever lived are now extinct. What makes you so sure that a few hundred million years' worth of evolution never produced a better endurance athlete that had fitness for a time but subsequently died out as Nature moved the goalposts?
- columbo 14y ago
  > Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known. I believe the Ostrich and the Antelope would disagree.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - doc4t 14y ago
    I don't know about the Ostrich but the Antelope would certainly loose
    - columbo 14y ago
      http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/animal-kingdom-top-marathon-runners-pronghorn-antelope http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/anim... Pronghorn Antelopes, on the other hand, can maintain speeds of 60 mph for miles at a time. "If the Cheetah and pronghorn were running side by side, and if the track was longer than a quarter of a mile, the pronghorn would win it, no contest," Carmi Penny, director of collections at the San Diego zoo says. While cheetahs have flexible spines which allow their legs to spend more time pushing off the ground, antelopes have long thin limbs that allow them to run both fast and economically. These legs, paired with tremendous aerobic capacity, are what allow the antelopes to outrun most predators. When you get to long distances, the antelopes can sustain 30 mph for about an hour. Read more: Long Distance Running Biomechanics – Marathons in the Animal Kingdom - Popular Mechanics
      - JPKab 14y ago
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o This is a video of human hunters (Koi San, an African ethnic group that has been pushed to extinction over the last millennia by the Bantu tribes) chasing down a kudu antelope. Antelope are great runners, but they can't cool themselves as efficiently as humans. It's a beautiful video, and the way the hunter reacts after the kill is very moving.
        columbo 14y ago
        That is a really cool video but I'm not sure if I'd take that to say "humans are better long distance runners". The fact is that humans are the most intelligent species (excluding dolphins and mice) and have used that to their advantage. For example, carrying water and weapons. Since these tribesmen can carry water they can replenish water that the other animal cannot. If the tribemen and the antelope had the same amount of water (none) who would win? Also, I'm not sure if it is the case in this video (also, my audio is not working so I'm at a loss for anything said during the video), it wasn't clear if they were using a triangle approach where you have two hunters on either side and one in the middle. In that instance the antelope might run back-and-forth over that long distance and not run in a straight line (meaning it ran farther, just not smarter). Even if we disregard the benefits from a higher intelligence it still only says "humans are great long distance runners in hot/flat terrain when carrying water". For example, try out-jogging a deer this December in the midwestern wilderness, or slap on some tennis and try to wear out a husky when it is twenty-below and 30mph winds.
  - city41 14y ago
    I can't find any real info on ostriches running long distances. The best I've found is National Geographic stating that they can "run long distances at 31 mph". But how far can they run? Humans can, and often do, run 100 miles in one effort. I'm curious if the ostrich's internal system can maintain 31 mph for over 3 hours, or barring that get to 100 miles at any speed.
- btilly 14y ago
  Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known. Sorry, you're wrong, and that book is not a particularly accurate reference. Read http://www.sbrunning.org/Reviews/BookWhyWeRun.htm http://www.sbrunning.org/Reviews/BookWhyWeRun.htm for some sanity on this. As an example of a better long-distance runner, there was a kangaroo which was observed in the wild, to have travelled 200 miles in 10 hours. Since it probably did not go in a straight line, it likely travelled farther. That's almost 8x the distance of a marathon, at around 50% faster than the absolute best human marathon time, all done over wild terrain.
  - gnaritas 14y ago
    Kangaroos don't run. :)
    - btilly 14y ago
      But ostriches do. Both ostriches and a pronghorn antelope are capable of running a marathon in about 45 minutes. I don't know how much farther they can keep going, but at that distance we're totally outclassed by them. Sled dogs in the ididitrod regularly go 15 mph for 6 hours. That's faster than a human does a marathon, for several times the distance, while dragging a heavy object behind them. We're designed for running long distances, and do very well at it for a primate. But we are very, very far from being champions at it.
      - ohashi 14y ago
        Would that be the cooling factor, mentioned in the article, at play?
        btilly 14y ago
        Cooling is definitely not a problem for sled dogs running in the snow. (Surviving blizzards is a different story.) But the kangaroo was traveling in an environment that is hotter than humans are OK running in. Camels are another good runner, in camel races they regularly maintain speeds comparable to top notch marathoners for about 2x the distance while running in conditions hot enough that a running human would collapse from heat stroke. So yes, cooling matters. But if you're trying to squeeze out a niche for running long distances in hot weather, you still are going to have extreme trouble finding a regime where we are best. If you really want humans to win, you need a combination obstacle course/distance run. There is nothing that runs at our speed for long distances that can also climb. Of course once you go into that niche, we're no longer being judged on our ability to run, are we?
sageikosa 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express 10 miles apart for horse changes.
78704 14y ago
We're really versatile; better at climbing trees, for example, than most animals; we lose of course to specialists e.g. other primates, cats... better at swimming than most land animals... horse/man contest seems unfair, though, since the horse had to carry a guy.
- Someone 14y ago
  Nitpick: Than most animals? I doubt it. Anything less than a gram (easily over 99% of all animals, likely even of all animal species) will barely notice the difference between a tree standing up and one that has fallen down.

by Iv 14y ago

city41 14y ago

Our ability to sweat and our lungs operating independent of our heart are also factors. The book Born to Run goes into this in great detail. It's a really good, and fascinating, read. Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known.

wging 14y ago
>Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known. While I like your enthusiasm, recall that most species that ever lived are now extinct. What makes you so sure that a few hundred million years' worth of evolution never produced a better endurance athlete that had fitness for a time but subsequently died out as Nature moved the goalposts?
columbo 14y ago
> Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known. I believe the Ostrich and the Antelope would disagree.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- doc4t 14y ago
  I don't know about the Ostrich but the Antelope would certainly loose
  - columbo 14y ago
    http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/animal-kingdom-top-marathon-runners-pronghorn-antelope http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/physics/anim... Pronghorn Antelopes, on the other hand, can maintain speeds of 60 mph for miles at a time. "If the Cheetah and pronghorn were running side by side, and if the track was longer than a quarter of a mile, the pronghorn would win it, no contest," Carmi Penny, director of collections at the San Diego zoo says. While cheetahs have flexible spines which allow their legs to spend more time pushing off the ground, antelopes have long thin limbs that allow them to run both fast and economically. These legs, paired with tremendous aerobic capacity, are what allow the antelopes to outrun most predators. When you get to long distances, the antelopes can sustain 30 mph for about an hour. Read more: Long Distance Running Biomechanics – Marathons in the Animal Kingdom - Popular Mechanics
    - JPKab 14y ago
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o This is a video of human hunters (Koi San, an African ethnic group that has been pushed to extinction over the last millennia by the Bantu tribes) chasing down a kudu antelope. Antelope are great runners, but they can't cool themselves as efficiently as humans. It's a beautiful video, and the way the hunter reacts after the kill is very moving.
      - columbo 14y ago
        That is a really cool video but I'm not sure if I'd take that to say "humans are better long distance runners". The fact is that humans are the most intelligent species (excluding dolphins and mice) and have used that to their advantage. For example, carrying water and weapons. Since these tribesmen can carry water they can replenish water that the other animal cannot. If the tribemen and the antelope had the same amount of water (none) who would win? Also, I'm not sure if it is the case in this video (also, my audio is not working so I'm at a loss for anything said during the video), it wasn't clear if they were using a triangle approach where you have two hunters on either side and one in the middle. In that instance the antelope might run back-and-forth over that long distance and not run in a straight line (meaning it ran farther, just not smarter). Even if we disregard the benefits from a higher intelligence it still only says "humans are great long distance runners in hot/flat terrain when carrying water". For example, try out-jogging a deer this December in the midwestern wilderness, or slap on some tennis and try to wear out a husky when it is twenty-below and 30mph winds.
- city41 14y ago
  I can't find any real info on ostriches running long distances. The best I've found is National Geographic stating that they can "run long distances at 31 mph". But how far can they run? Humans can, and often do, run 100 miles in one effort. I'm curious if the ostrich's internal system can maintain 31 mph for over 3 hours, or barring that get to 100 miles at any speed.
btilly 14y ago
Basically humans are the greatest long distance runners the planet has ever known. Sorry, you're wrong, and that book is not a particularly accurate reference. Read http://www.sbrunning.org/Reviews/BookWhyWeRun.htm http://www.sbrunning.org/Reviews/BookWhyWeRun.htm for some sanity on this. As an example of a better long-distance runner, there was a kangaroo which was observed in the wild, to have travelled 200 miles in 10 hours. Since it probably did not go in a straight line, it likely travelled farther. That's almost 8x the distance of a marathon, at around 50% faster than the absolute best human marathon time, all done over wild terrain.
- gnaritas 14y ago
  Kangaroos don't run. :)
  - btilly 14y ago
    But ostriches do. Both ostriches and a pronghorn antelope are capable of running a marathon in about 45 minutes. I don't know how much farther they can keep going, but at that distance we're totally outclassed by them. Sled dogs in the ididitrod regularly go 15 mph for 6 hours. That's faster than a human does a marathon, for several times the distance, while dragging a heavy object behind them. We're designed for running long distances, and do very well at it for a primate. But we are very, very far from being champions at it.
    - ohashi 14y ago
      Would that be the cooling factor, mentioned in the article, at play?
      - btilly 14y ago
        Cooling is definitely not a problem for sled dogs running in the snow. (Surviving blizzards is a different story.) But the kangaroo was traveling in an environment that is hotter than humans are OK running in. Camels are another good runner, in camel races they regularly maintain speeds comparable to top notch marathoners for about 2x the distance while running in conditions hot enough that a running human would collapse from heat stroke. So yes, cooling matters. But if you're trying to squeeze out a niche for running long distances in hot weather, you still are going to have extreme trouble finding a regime where we are best. If you really want humans to win, you need a combination obstacle course/distance run. There is nothing that runs at our speed for long distances that can also climb. Of course once you go into that niche, we're no longer being judged on our ability to run, are we?

sageikosa 14y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express 10 miles apart for horse changes.

78704 14y ago

We're really versatile; better at climbing trees, for example, than most animals; we lose of course to specialists e.g. other primates, cats... better at swimming than most land animals... horse/man contest seems unfair, though, since the horse had to carry a guy.

Someone 14y ago
Nitpick: Than most animals? I doubt it. Anything less than a gram (easily over 99% of all animals, likely even of all animal species) will barely notice the difference between a tree standing up and one that has fallen down.