Humans and Horses are the only two animals that can literally run themselves to death
Why?? It’s actually a lot more interesting than you think..
To understand why the only animals with this interesting ability are us and our equine friends though, we must first take a quick look at some other stamina kings –
African Wild Dogs
These predators are famous for their incredible running ability – their primary hunting tactic is persistence hunting, which simply means they chase their prey over long distances until their victim gives out, collapsing due to exhaustion. You may have heard that this is the same hunting tactic our ancestors used, but you’d be wrong to end it there – persistence hunting still survives today, with the San people of the southern Kalahari, and the Rarámuri people of Northwestern Mexico.
Despite the impressive skills of African wild dogs however, humans still possess the long distance running advantage. The main reason why is simply due to how we stay cool.
Canids, like the African wild dog, as well as their prey of ungulates (hoofed mammals), have to pant to cool down. In order to pant, an animal either has to be moving slowly or staying completely still – not very handy in the middle of a chase. While many mammals sweat, only two have developed sweating enough to use it as an ability to cool down, those two being humans and horses.
The system obviously has its limits though, and once one breaks a certain exhaustion/heat threshold, homeostasis in both humans and horses breaks down, developing into very sudden and lethal cardiac arrest. That is running yourself to death.
In animals that need to pant in order to cool down, such a restriction means that their body literally prohibits them from moving until they recover – they will collapse of exhaustion (not lethally) before any extreme negative effects such as death could occur.
Hope this helped!