Running after Antelope

You may be familiar with the radio show This American Life. If not, then you'll just have to listen to it because it is hard to describe. Each week they have a number of stories loosely based around a theme.

Around here you'll find it on 88.5 KQED at noon on a Saturday and again at 10pm. Even better they stream practically all their shows on the web.

Back in 1997 one of their perennial favorites Scott Carrier told a great story about his attempt to run down an antelope. (It's actually the second story in the show but takes up the majority of the hour long show). For reasons a little too complicated to explain Scott and his brother are trying to show it would have been possible to hunt down antelope on foot simply by doggedly chasing them until the antelope become exhausted. Listening to this story made me realize yet another advantage to group living when it comes to defending against predators. After chasing a pair of deer for some hours they round a corner to find the two deer they were chasing had merged with another group of deer. This group then merged with yet another group. After repeated merging like this they found it impossible to know which deer they had been chasing which made it impossible to single out and chase down any particular individual.

But don't take my word for it, listen to the story. It's got some interesting observations on biology, grad school and life generally and it is a great example of storytelling.