Before Fire or Tools, Humans Outran Their Prey to Stay Alive — A Survival Skill Known as Persistence Hunting

Long before our ancestors learned about fire and utilized tools, they had one significant advantage against other animals, and that was their extraordinary endurance. A method that uses this trait the most, called persistence hunting, is why they managed to survive on open savannas, under the scorching heat of the sun.

Along with other evolutionary traits, humans’ endurance-based hunting allows them to exhaust animals until they overheat, collapse, and can easily be caught. This technique is still practiced up to this modern day, by groups like the San people of the Kalahari Desert, which proves that we are a species that evolved to run a long distance.

A Unique Human Adaptation

Human ancestors needed to migrate all over the world due to a variety of reasons, and one of the most important ones was finding reliable sources of food. This is one of the leading theories why they transitioned from forestry areas to open savannas.

The massive shift in environment naturally favored the development of traits that were needed for them to survive, such as bipedalism, long legs, strong tendons, and an efficient cooling method, like losing their fur.

Over time, the human ancestors’ bodies have evolved to be capable of running long distances, not to match the speed of some animals they could hunt, such as antelopes or deer, but to eventually outrun them, as they get exhausted.

Read more: Wikipedia

Real-Life Hunters in the Kalahari

Persistence Hunting (Man Vs Animal)

The San people of southern Africa still show how persistence hunting works: up to this day, they run under the scorching heat of the sun, sweating consistently to cool off, and tracking the footprints of their prey, until they find them collapse from heat stress.

These types of hunts are not about speed; they are not sprints but more like a marathon. It is a battle of endurance, stamina, and internal temperature control, which our species has millions of experience in.

Evolutionary Importance

Years and years of persistence hunting likely further developed some traits that predate it, like bipedalism. By using their two legs more, our ancestors were able to unlock the ability to cover more ground with each step, withstand the repetitive stress and impact of running, and have a larger, more efficient lung capacity, which allows more intake of oxygen.

Scientists also attribute the increase in brain size in human ancestors to their hunting and food-gathering techniques. This is primarily because those type of hunts needed their complex cognitive functions, naturally favoring larger brains over time.

Persistence hunting also gave birth to changes in diets, such as an increase in consumption of meat, which provided the necessary energy to support the hunting strategy, and nutrients for the development of the body, and potentially brain growth.

Read more: Science Direct

The Ongoing Debate

Despite the evidence and scientific plausibility of the theories, some experts do not agree with this concept. They argue that the evidence we have gathered is inconclusive and point out that hunting may have relied more on the intellectual capabilities of our ancestors than their endurance.

However, the sheer number of cases from Africa and North America where this type of hunting is still being documented up to this modern day suggests that persistence hunting was a real and powerful survival strategy. But, there is no denying that after the discovery of fire, and soon the use of tools, ancient humans have relied more on their intelligence than endurance.

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Author's Final Thoughts

Persistence hunting highlights how our bodies evolved into what it is today, and how we survived without discovering how to use fire or any of the stone tools yet. It suggests that we did it by outrunning and outlasting our prey.

Over time, this strategy developed our physical characteristics and helped us transition to better, more efficient food-gathering techniques that gave birth to human civilizations, culture, and traditions that we can still observe up to this day.

Read more: Humans Have Left Over 200 Tons of Trash on the Moon — Including Vomit, Old Boots and Bags of Urine

References & Further Reading

Bramble, D. M., & Lieberman, D. E. (2004). Endurance running and the evolution of Homo. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03052

Liebenberg, L. (2006). Persistence hunting by modern hunter-gatherers. Current Anthropology. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/508695

Hora, M., Pontzer, H., Wall-Scheffler, C. M., & Sládek, V. (2020). Dehydration and persistence hunting in Homo erectus. Journal of Human Evolution. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31770677/

Ruxton, G. D., & Wilkinson, D. M. (2011). Avoidance of overheating and selection for both hair loss and bipedality in hominins. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1113915108

Pickering, T. R., & Bunn, H. T. (2007). The endurance running hypothesis and hunting and scavenging in savanna-woodlands. Journal of Human Evolution. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17720224/