I'm going on a persistence hunt

IT'S HAPPENING.  

I'm going on a persistence hunt in Wyoming this weekend.  Barefoot Ted is assembling a team of special ops Luna Sandals space monkeys. We're hunting pronghorn antelope.  

I'm quite sure that I'll be the worst runner by far.  But it's not about that.  Persistence hunting is a team sport, and it's about your team keeping that animal above it's trot-gallop transition speed as much as possible.  Mammals, except humans, don't sweat -- they pant, and when you keep them in a gallop, they can't pant.  So they overheat and die.  I'll carry water as far as my legs will take me.  And of course, hunger will be a powerful motivator.

Many of you have probably seen this, but here's the awesome (and successful) persistence hunt footage in the Kalahari.

To hear what will surely be an epic story, whether we succeed or fail, don't forget to sign up for the New York City Barefoot Run on September 24-25th.

Comments

I had to "persistence hunt"

Submitted by Emily on Sun, 09/04/2011 - 09:12.

I had to "persistence hunt" one of my horses the other day lol. I have two that I let roam in a five acre pasture, and one of them is getting really crafty and avoiding being caught. Everytime I get within 10 feet, he trots off about 30 yards and continues to eat grass. I caught the easy one and took him back to the barn, changed into some running shoes and headed back out. I kept a nice easy jog for most of it with a few quick sprints thrown in when he changed directions to keep the space. Thirty minutes in and he gave up lol.

I had to "persistence hunt"

Submitted by Emily on Sun, 09/04/2011 - 09:12.

I had to "persistence hunt" one of my horses the other day lol. I have two that I let roam in a five acre pasture, and one of them is getting really crafty and avoiding being caught. Everytime I get within 10 feet, he trots off about 30 yards and continues to eat grass. I caught the easy one and took him back to the barn, changed into some running shoes and headed back out. I kept a nice easy jog for most of it with a few quick sprints thrown in when he changed directions to keep the space. Thirty minutes in and he gave up lol.

 Assuming you succeed, what's

Submitted by Dragonmamma/Naomi on Sat, 09/03/2011 - 08:51.

 Assuming you succeed, what's the plan for returning with the kill? Will the animal be prepared on the spot before carrying it out?  Does each person carry an individual load, or is it all loaded onto some sort of platform that gets dragged/carried by everyone?

Everybody has their own

Submitted by Nofootprints on Thu, 09/01/2011 - 19:08.

Everybody has their own morality.And let me comment i have great respect for B Ted.However i would like to share with people on this forum what Louis Liebenberg who wrote the book told me directly.I personally think its worth thinking aboutLouis has a beautiful synchonisity with the bush and the animals in a way that speaks of  a man who really understands and connects with nature in a very deep way so i think his words are worth taking note of.There is no need for persistance hunting anymore. It is unnecessarily cruel.Now that we have modern weapons its no longer necessary.Bushman used it until recently for the folllowing reasons;1. They didnt have guns or ammunition was too expensive for them2. Their use of traditional bow and arrow has a lower probability of success than a persistant hunt given the correct conditions (hot day)There is no way a bushman would hunt for the pleasure of it.There is no doubt a lot of our neural wiring is around  hunting. Doesnt mean we have to give into it. Part of being a sentient being is that we can behave in a way that is compassionate which barefooting  has aided by broadening my awareness 

I think doing a hunt like

Submitted by Evolutionman on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 01:38.

I think doing a hunt like this is actually an ethical endeavor. It connects us to nature in a way so few experience or understand anymore.  I am sure the group is going to eat the animal (if they catch it!) - it is food acquistion.As one poster says homo sapiens like any organism - by just living causes death and some misery in their food acquisition or in their life routines. Consider the unnecessary cruelty we see in meat factories. NOW SOLVING THAT would help alot of poor creatures out in minimizing suffering.Omega 6 rich animal products, where the amount of Omega 6 fatty acids substantially, sometimes exponentially, outweighs the amount of Omega 3 fatty acids is what is produced in the factory farms. This is killing and maiming many people (read heart disease, autoimmune diseases, cancers, obesity) - whereas if everyone was eating wild caught meat nd salads we would have a new plateau of health in society. An evolution based diet solves many of the illnesses seen in today's society.

 I respectfully disagree.

Submitted by Nathan Matthews on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 13:57.

 I respectfully disagree.  First of all not every hunter with a rifle fells their prey with a single shot and more often than not the deer or whatever bolts and slowly bleeds to death while running away.  Contrast that with an animal that is as exhausted as we see in the video: his/her endorphins have cut in so he/she is not feeling anything and is close to passing out.  Secondly, rifles allow humans to hunt many animals that normally would not be available to humans in an evolutionary sense so the connection to ones place in nature and on the food chain is lost.  You've heard the theories that human kind spread out across the planet following the herds?  I feel our natural place is out on land just like the Red Desert where John is right now following the herd.  As far as not hunting for pleasure - that just doesn't compute to me.  Hunting in this maner, was for millions of years - life.  And if life is not pleasurable then what are we doing?  As far as compasion goes - what is more compationate: raising millions of domestic cows in cages and slaughtering them for ground beef, or earning your meal and gaining a respect for nature and the true nature of the animal you plan to eat?  Currently there are fewer people living in the Great Plains region of the US than there were when Europeans arrived here.  I dream of a time when buffalo roam these Great Plains again in the millions as they did providing the entire country with healthy grass fed meat and putting an end to factory raised beef.

Everything we do in life ends

Submitted by John on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 11:24.

Everything we do in life ends up taking the life of other creatures -- even using the internet (blogging, electricity, oil, mining, drilling, etc.) It's just that with most activities, the death is distant. We are willing to put the death front and center, and through re-living the human story, bring more people to a conscious way of living and reconnecting with life on this planet. I have no moral issues hunting this animal.

Many would argue that there

Submitted by tim_lebsack on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 10:44.

Many would argue that there is no need for hunting anymore.Several years ago, in many American States anti-hunters legislated the use of retro-technology, black powder, in an effort designed to curb an activity they wanted someone else to avoid.  Hunters responded, as mankind always does, by modernizing black powder technology.  The end result was that more hunters harvested more animals, more money was spent on wildlife care and today in the USA we have more available game for hunters than was available for previous generations.  An example would be Whitetail deer with over 400x the population in the USA today than in the early 1900's.  Though I'm ignorant of Xan sociology, I'm doubting the idea that no bushman would hunt "for the pleasure of it". 

I agree with much of this.

Submitted by Barefoot Ted on Thu, 09/01/2011 - 20:41.

I agree with much of this. Let me say this is really just an odessey, an adventure more about reconnecting and appreciating and more deeply understanding the enormity of the necessity to find a way to survive as early humans. Success from my perspective is just being out here and trying to tune in to this old style of being. For real success hunting, I think in the future I might try fishing. BFT

 Anyone notice the runners in

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 09/01/2011 - 14:25.

 Anyone notice the runners in the video wearing sneakers and heel striking?

Good luck! I'm sure we'll all

Submitted by Katt on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 12:29.

Good luck! I'm sure we'll all be interested in the tale!

Hrmm, this should be

Submitted by Erin on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 10:34.

Hrmm, this should be interesting.  I am curious as to how big the property is you will be running on. I would think an antelope leaping a fence onto private land will end a persistance hunt fairly quickly.  I took a nice antelope in Northern Colorado last year.  Even though I shot it with a rifle I spent long hours over two days walking and scouting, we snuck up on multiple animals which required lots of crawling and creeping over rough terrain. The first hunt morning we were up at like 4 am so that we could sneak into a particular drainage early, shivering out on the plain in the dark, sweating during the day.  Then I helped carry the meat back to the truck for a distance.  As much as that was not a traditional african hunt, it wasn't a cake walk that is for sure.  I would be curious, antelope can easily have a pretty gamey taste. Between deer, elk, caribou, and moose, antelope for us has been the hardest to get a consistently good flavor from.  Some of it is hormones, some of it is what they eat, some might be the hunting season is usually during hot months. I would be curious what the flavor of the animal would be after hours of running with a build up of adrenaline and lactic acid.  As much as I like to mimic traditional hunting techniques, it might not be a very appetizing animal. I know a lot of hunters who eat game meat on a regular basis who cannot stand the flavor of antelope.      

Are you guys using

Submitted by Tracy on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 05:30.

Are you guys using poison-tipped arrows? When the San (aka Bushmen) hunt kudu and oryx, they first single out an animal then shoot a small poison-tipped arrow into the neck (probably jugular vein). This helps slow the animal, separate it from the herd and eventually kill it (though the things run pretty darn far before the poison takes them down).

Nope, no poison-tipped

Submitted by John on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 11:29.

Nope, no poison-tipped arrows. Antelope may be too fast...we'll see...it'll be fun whatever happens

 I've shot more than a few

Submitted by Tim Rangitsch on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 23:04.

 I've shot more than a few pronghorn, and am imagining running down a critter that goes 60mph on a lark.  But then, I've seen success with archery hunting antelope, so you can get the beasts curious and bring them to you, too.  This will be a cool tale to hear, win, lose or draw.

This is AWESOME! I'm very

Submitted by Fatkid on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 21:14.

This is AWESOME! I'm very jealous! I've love the opportunity to do th is and can't wait to hear the tale!... unfortunately I cannot attend the New York City Barefoot Run since I live in Orlando...but maybe you could do one down here sometime(just not in the summer...the ground is too hot!).

 Ok I have to say that I'm

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 20:02.

 Ok I have to say that I'm jealous. That being said though, even with BF Ted's enthusiam and endurance, you guys are going to get into trouble when it comes to tracking. Be aware that unless you can successfully single out an individual antelope, the one you chase will just circle back into the herd. You'll end up chasing 20 different animals without wearing any of them down. This is where numbers and tactics come into play. Once you split one off from the herd, you are going to have to keep it away from the others....from there the tracking will be relatively easy 'cause you'll just have to follow any antelope shaped sign.  Don't take my word for it. I read it in a book....by a guy who has had successful persistance hunts. "The art of Tracking: the origin of Science" by Louis Leibenberg.

 What this guy said.  I'm

Submitted by Carl on Thu, 09/01/2011 - 07:16.

 What this guy said.  I'm under the impression that being able to outrun the animal is only part of the challenge, but successfully singling out an individual and then tracking it for an extended duration is no cakewalk.  But I'm sure you must have taken this into account having already decided to embark on this adventure.  If that is the case, I'd be interested to know what techniques or strategies you've got up your sleeves to make it a successful hunt if you wouldn't mind divulging.  That said, I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm supremely jealous of you and the other ambitious monkeys for undertaking such a grand adventure.   Good luck and enjoy!

Yeah, isolating one

Submitted by John on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 11:27.

Yeah, isolating one individual will be essential. We lost touch with our tracker/ultra runner a few days ago, so we're on our own. We'll see what happens -- the good thing about this terrain is that it's fairly easy to keep an individual in sight.

 Mammals don't pant? Go tell

Submitted by Nance on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 19:13.

 Mammals don't pant? Go tell that to a horse.  And antelope season in Wyoming doesn't start until September 10. Are you going on a private preserve?

Archery season starts

Submitted by John on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 11:20.

Archery season starts earlier, and the game wardens determined we fell under archery rules

 Horses are one of the

Submitted by Ian Wendt on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 00:18.

 Horses are one of the notable exceptions. There are a few, but the vast majority of mammals do not effectively thermoregulate via perspiration. Panting and a few other methods (like kangaroos licking their forearms) are far more common. 

 Excuse me, I meant to say,

Submitted by Nance on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 19:16.

 Excuse me, I meant to say, "Mammals don't sweat? Go tell that to a horse." 

Bernd Heinrich's 'Why We Run'

Submitted by Mark Lofquist on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 07:58.

Bernd Heinrich's 'Why We Run' does a great job explaining how other endurance animals perform - like birds pooping on themselves for a bit of convective cooling. 

 Analysis of early man

Submitted by macmhagan on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 17:33.

 Analysis of early man hunting sites show that the first thing the hunters would do would be to snap off the legs, break the bones and suck out the marrow: instant reward for the long hard work of the hunt.  Will you be doing that?

If we make it that far, I'm

Submitted by John on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 11:25.

If we make it that far, I'm sure we will. But I think it's unlikely we'll catch anything.

This sounds like a lot of

Submitted by tim_lebsack on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 17:14.

This sounds like a lot of fun.  I'm sure I could learn the endurance, not so sure I could learn to track.How the meat is affected by the game overheating for the several hours required ?

 That's brilliant! I'm

Submitted by Ian Wendt on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 17:07.

 That's brilliant! I'm contemplating being really belligerent and hunting feral pigs with a spear that I'll make myself :D

This is much more about

Submitted by Barefoot Tes on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 20:00.

This is much more about telling a real old story about what it means to be human with a slight Lunatic twist. It's an unfolding odyssey that is more a group adventure than a full fledged hunting expidition. We will get something. We will have some stories. We encourage others to tell their own. I won't be sad if we're barbecuing tenderloins on the weekend, but I'm not betting my life on it ;-)