The thing with a lot of animals is also that they’re pretty dumb.
They could potentially out walk us, it’s the most energy efficient way of moving, but what they actually do is run off when they see a human, then when they no longer see the human, they take a break. At which point the human catches up. At which point they run off again. Repeat multiple times.
The human simply has to keep walking, while the animal keeps running off. If the animal instead walked, the human would never or take far longer to catch up, because the animal would tire itself far less.
The thing with a lot of animals is also that they’re pretty dumb.
They could potentially out walk us, it’s the most energy efficient way of moving, but what they actually do is run off when they see a human, then when they no longer see the human, they take a break. At which point the human catches up. At which point they run off again. Repeat multiple times.
The human simply has to keep walking, while the animal keeps running off. If the animal instead walked, the human would never or take far longer to catch up, because the animal would tire itself far less.
Humans use less energy because we’re bipedal. Even if the hunted animals walked, presumably humans could trail them and wait them out.
This is why horror movie characters always just walk slowly
I mean it’s not dumb, it’s evolution. Can you imagine a deer “just walking” away from any other predator?
https://i.imgur.com/h3DTCqU.png