I've been inspired by another thread. I don't want to kill them, just get as close as possible. Would it be near to impossible? Any tips? how fast are deer over long distances? I live around a lot of brush/forest, so I think it would be extra hard
I've been inspired by another thread. I don't want to kill them, just get as close as possible. Would it be near to impossible? Any tips? how fast are deer over long distances? I live around a lot of brush/forest, so I think it would be extra hard
I think terrain is key. If you were on the plains you could do it. But not good to run a deer to near death if you are no gonna kill it.
Watch the video, too.
Personally, to me it does sound cool at first.
However on second though it does sound very cruel.
The animals do not stop until they literally collapse and are near death.
As runners ourselves, could you imagine how miserable it would be to run until you were actually at or very near the point of death?
If I had to do it to survive, I would.
Otherwise it sounds pretty cruel.
Yeah, the meat would taste like shit.
if you watch the Richard Attenborough video of the Kalahari persistence hunt, you will see that you have to be an expert tracker to do it, and in brush/forest, there is no way that you will be able to track the deer.
I persistence hunted a cougar the other night. The look in her eyes as I pounced was unforgettable. They are not used to having the tables turned like that.
You must have read the Born to Run book recently where this was discussed. That was a pretty cool story. In regards to your post, I would think that a pack of runners would be necessary and that you would have to be in for the long haul. To you it is a game but to the animal it is life or death. I hope you eat what you kill.
In the woods, no chance.
Deer, Squirrels, rabbits wrote:
I've been inspired by another thread. I don't want to kill them, just get as close as possible. Would it be near to impossible? Any tips? how fast are deer over long distances? I live around a lot of brush/forest, so I think it would be extra hard
I'm way too old to keep up now but when I was in HS I actually did run down a deer.
I started with my brother who was also an XC runner and we chased some deer in a park.
1) Being inside a fairly large park is a big advantage - no busy/dangerous roads to cross
2) Having a "teammate" helps a great deal - often when one of you loses sight of the deer the other one can still see it. Also, by spreading out you can (kind of) keep forcing it back toward a path that works for you.
3) The park was half open meadow and half light forest (not too much underbrush and fairly low tree density). This and a "runnable" surface are pretty key (I don't think I would try it on hilly/rocky terrain).
My brother dropped out after about a mile and a half, but having him there for that time period was definitely a help. I stayed with the deer for about three more miles at which point the deer fairly suddenly just gave up and stopped. I walked right up to it, did not touch it, but came within about three feet.
I can see how it is possible that people used to hunt in this way. Before I tried it myself I thought that it would be impossible. Now I think any good HS XC runner team with 2 or 3 guys could succeed. It wouldn't be impossible with just one guy, just somewhat more iffy (if you lose sight early on game's over).
I think the key to the persistence hunt is that the animal eventually overheats. McDougal goes into this - ungulates have fewer sweat glands, inability to separate breath rate from stride rate, etc. So, if you were trying to hunt a deer down in the mountains, as opposed to the hot Savannah, I don't think you would win.
How hot was it the day you did it.
06 wrote:
How hot was it the day you did it.
I don't specifically remember (this was 30 years ago) but I can say:
1) It was a summer day
2) It was in the middle of the day
3) It was in New Jersey
So the chances are that it was fairly hot and muggy.
I did it. You need good tracking and running snow to make it quite easy. Anybody who could run around three hours for a Marathon could do it.
Deer are very predictable and they will run a circle which you can cut the tangents of.
The point where an animal will "bay" is actually far from death.
fascinating.
i'm the OP of the thread you were "inspired" by.
my experiences with deer chasing:
the other day, I was driving home in my neighborhood. I saw a herd of deer. I immediately pulled the car over and gave chase. i was wearing sandals and it was muddy. i chased them for a bit. they were hard to see, but when you do spot one after looking ..... it's surreal. pretty cool experience. after a lil' bit, one of 'em ran to the right, and another to the left. i followed the one that went to the left. i followed it for a bit until I stepped in a stream full of mud that i couldn't see, causing my sandal to come off. by the time i was able to fish it out, i couldn't find the deer.
the point is not to catch the deer (although that would be cool, and it looks like is indeed possible). the point is just to practice. just follow it for as long as you can. if you get tired, stop. if you can't find it, stop. and if you can stay with it long enough until IT stops ..... awesome! Human 1, Deer 0.
either way, you're getting in a good, fun, NATURAL workout. Humans have been constantly changing and doing different things, all these thousands and millions of years .... but it appears that for all of that time, we have had the ability to run down a deer, using our superior endurance to defeat one with superior speed. fascinating.
and it's not cruel. come on. i'm a bleeding heart liberal hippie. but come on. deer were meant to run and be chased. we are predators. they are prey. that's nature. we have killed off wolves, bears, and all their other natural predators. we are all thats' left. it's our duty to chase after them.
if you can chase a deer until it gives up .... you're not going to kill it (although you can, and if it's legal and you eat the meat and fat and bone marrow and use every part of the deer just like the native americans, good) so that means that the deer will just rest for a while and then go about his life. you just gave it a good workout is all. he/she'll survive.
and if by running it to exhaustion means that it can't recover and it dies .... well, the deer are exremely overpopulated anyway. better to be killed by running than get hit by a car or die slowly of starvation, no? Honestly, if I had to pick how I could die, and I couldn't pick dying in my sleep, then I might pick running to exhaustion. Your body probably gets flooded with so many different chemicals it will numb the pain, and it's not a messy death involving a piercing pain like so many other deaths.
if you live in brush/forest where it's dense, it'll be more walking and less running, but there will still be some running.
the thing about the deer is that they don't run very far. they probably run farther in africa and south america where they are afraid of humans. here, they're mildly acclimated, so they let you come closer before they run away, and they don't run that far. even if you lose sight, if you just keep tramping in that direction (the less noise you make probably the better, but I've found that even when I'm making a lot of noise it still happens) eventually you'll spot the deer. so you can track it for a while this way.
best times to spot deer are dawn and dusk.
deer usually stay in the same general area, so if you know where they have been spotted, look there.
Would this work on moose, elk or antelope? I bet a human could never run down a caribou.
I would imagine the season would be important for this.
As I understand it, bucks can get rather aggressive during mating season. At that time, if some scrawny human started charging toward a buck, I'm not so sure the buck would run away. He might charge toward you, looking for a fight.
I don't think you would find that enjoyable, but it sure would be a workout of a different sort though.
Arch Stanton wrote:
Would this work on moose, elk or antelope? I bet a human could never run down a caribou.
I'm not sure you would want to try this with a moose. They can get aggressive if disturbed and they are very big animals. Not sure if they would use this as a fleeing tactic, but they can swim surprisingly well.
When my brother and I were in HS we used to chase rabbits on some of our runs and it really wasn't that difficult to wear one down.
There was a segment on ESPN a few years ago about football players in south Florida that chase rabbits regularly. Supposedly helps with developing their speed. It was almost a rite of passage kind of thing.
Here's the link