Re: Digest Number 161

From: JEFFREY KYER <jeff.kyer_at_...>
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 00:11:02 -0000

Which? The hunting practices or the out walking a horse?

Roman troops regularly outmarched their cavalry IF the Legionary columns did not bring the whole 80 lbs of "Marius Mule" kit. (Tacitus). The slower-moving British cavalry were often outdistanced by their own sepoy troops in India. Apparently, humans do better in the heat than horses do.... Not surprising, really.

Ripley's has a rather nice account of a regular contest in Kentucky where a man would race a horse. Over 4 days, the horse just could not
keep up -- they require high amounts of rich fodder to recover themselves if used hard

> evolved to run down prey, since this is energetically very unwise.

Hardly. You just walk. Remember, meat is a high-energy source of food. And a large beast will keep you AND your group fed for a while.
 Several days to walk down a wounded beast is not

Any grazer has a problem in that they require a lot of food, we don't.
 Just like the only other mammal with the same heart/lung to bodymass ratio out there -- the wolf. Walk-lope-walk can be kept up forever.

This is the hunting practice used by bushmen of southern africa, massai of central africa, aborigine of australia. These are about the
only hunting cultures still existant -- at least, ones where there'sn ot a lot of cover to sneak up on things such as the woodlands and jungles. And we evolved on the savannah afterall.

> To come back to the rules: "Run fast" is a very different ability
than
> "march fast" or "run long distance" (See Black Demon Steed in NB,
it
has
> both skills)
>
> Greetings,
>
> Andreas

Powered by hypermail