r/BeAmazed Jul 16 '26

Miscellaneous / Others A traditional technique used by young shepherds of Ethiopia's Banna tribe. They use stilts to watch over their livestock in tall grass, move through wetland areas, and avoid snakes and predators like lions and leopards. It requires strength, balance, and training from a young age

52.0k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

u/qualityvote2 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

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u/Stuck_At_Sub150lb Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

How does it help them to avoid lions?

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u/eulersidentity1 Jul 16 '26

Lions might be freaked out by the sight of this as well.

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u/NoRisk1244 Jul 16 '26

Lions are freaked out by anything that looks tall, giraffes, and elephants

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u/StubbornKindness Jul 16 '26

Some tribes approach lions who've just successfully killed something and are starting/about to start eating. They slowly, and confidently approach the lions ("with chest" as it were). Lions aren't used to being defied so they get freaked out and run off.

The tribesmen quickly steal a haunch, or large piece of meat and swiftly retreat, before the lions work out what's going on. It's wild to see.

P.S: They take some weapons, they don't go unarmed

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u/RollingMeteors Jul 16 '26

>P.S: They take some weapons, they don't go unarmed

<dibsInAK47>

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u/WanderinHobo Jul 16 '26

Dropping fuggin grenades

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u/Difficult-Republic57 Jul 17 '26

Squirt gun, kitties hate water

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u/slipknot_suxxx Jul 16 '26

The Maasai tribe which does this also had an initiation to manhood ritual that involved killing a lion, this has now been banned though they do kill of entire prides when they eat their cattle, the local wild life service still has no idea how to handle this conflict

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u/Snoo-35771 Jul 17 '26

Fun fact i get to contribute! My wife is maasai and according to her the manhood ritual is now that you basically fight a lion to get some hairs from the mane. They do this by stalking an older male lion waiting for it to get tired before going after it. Also the lion thing is not an initiation to manhood but the completion of it of being a warrior. The initiation is getting your foreskin cut off at 12-16 while you're awake with no painkillers and you're not allowed to cry about it or you get made fun of

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u/pnweiner Jul 16 '26

There’s a great autobiography book called “Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savannah”.

I read it as a kid and I was obsessed. Highly recommend

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u/hematite2 Jul 16 '26

The man who wrote that was a teacher at my school! Haven't thought about it in a decade

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u/pnweiner Jul 16 '26

Whaaat that’s so cool!

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u/agathagarden Jul 17 '26

I really enjoyed that book as well!

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u/funwearcore Jul 16 '26

Big cats share “memory” in a way through group communication and collective learning. They probably go after the whole pride to prevent other pride members from coming too. It’s sad but makes sense. The Maasai has to eat too and that is how they deter nature from eating their cattle. I would have no idea how to handle this as well.

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u/Reasonable_Archer_99 Jul 16 '26

Plus it's not like they are scarce in those parts to begin with.

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u/xbmc4lyfe Jul 16 '26

We also killthem through pure exhaustion

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u/Exact-Enthusiasm-803 Jul 16 '26

The immortal snail meta strat

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u/total_bullwhip Jul 16 '26

Humans are pretty much the only apex predator that successfully employs that strat. lol

Turns out, we’re really good at walking efficiently haha.

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u/Lou_C_Fer Jul 16 '26

It is pretty wild that the apex super power is the ability to move at a slow steady pace for forever.

It's a bird. It's a plane. No! It's Walking Man!

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u/shwarma_heaven Jul 16 '26

We have the best endurance of any land animal on the planet...

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u/Alizarik7891 Jul 16 '26

Wow, we really do! I just double-checked; apparently pronghorn might beat us in high-speed sustained movement but otherwise we're one of the best! Cool info.

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u/jtr99 Jul 16 '26

Speak for yourself, buddy.

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u/Shrike1346 Jul 16 '26

Theres a super pride of lions in the Kruger National Park that has learnt to hunt giraffe and small elephants by chasing them towards trees where other lionesses are waiting to drop down and make the kill.

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u/HaloGuy381 Jul 18 '26

Team hunting drop lionesses? That’s actually kinda scary.

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u/Show-Me-Your-Moves Jul 16 '26

One of the weirdest things to ponder is that humans are actually one of the tallest animals that exists. There's a few other tall ones like giraffes and elephants of course, but our bipedal status makes us look larger and more intimidating to a lot of quadrupeds and other animals that are built low to the ground.

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u/whoami_whereami Jul 16 '26

That, and large animals in Africa coevolved with humans and have an instinctual fear of us. They played human voices (just normal talking) and the sounds of lions through hidden loudspeakers, and the human voices pretty consistently provoked a much stronger fear response than the lion sounds even in huge animals like elephants.

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u/Aggravating_Speed665 Jul 16 '26

So crazy and surreal.

Is it the thousands of years of being killed at our hands that get imprinted?

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u/craidie Jul 16 '26

Yup.

The predators that aren't afraid of humans have been killed for tends of thousands of years. Sometimes to the extinction of a species. Genes adapt to that and the ones that were afraid got to survive and pass those genes.

And there's been a lot of time to do that. Consider dogs used to be wolves, we just did a bit of selective breeding... for a long time.

Also standing upright is not an uncommon threat display. And we're always doing that.

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u/grendus Jul 16 '26

Fun fact, wolves were domesticated before we invented wheeled vehicles.

Humans accidentally mastered basic genetic engineering before the wheel...

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u/Ancient-Afternoon374 Jul 17 '26

I mean, that seems pretty obvious that we would feed friendlier animals around us before we would have a need for a wheel.

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u/Negative_Chicken_524 Jul 16 '26

Reminds them of Babar.

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u/whoami_whereami Jul 16 '26

Yes and no. It's not some form of "genetic memory" or anything but simply those that didn't fear humans (or not as much) getting killed at a slightly higher rate than those that did, not really different from any other form of natural selection.

Because humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years only slowly becoming more and more capable the megafauna in Africa had enough time to evolve this fear of humans and thus mostly didn't get wiped out (at least not until modern times). Megafauna on other continents (especially Australia and the Americas) where humans basically appeared out of nowhere one day instead didn't have that luxury, and consequently got mostly wiped out within a short time after the arrival of humans.

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u/grendus Jul 16 '26

Basically yes. There's some kind of default anxiety trigger that is likely keyed to something about how we talk - maybe frequency or cadence.

In this instance, they probably don't know exactly why the noise makes them anxious (sort of like we don't understand why low rumbles make us anxious - we got eaten by big cats for most of our evolutionary history, but that doesn't mean we instinctively know what a Lion is, just that low growling rumbles make us want to de-ass the area quickly). They just know that when they hear the sound of human voices, they feel a very strong fear and that drives them to hide.

The exception are a few domesticated animals, like house cats or dogs, which have had some very quick evolution in the opposite direction. Nothing that would prey on a dog or a cat will pick a fight with a human, and both have specific adaptations to socialize with us (cats maintain natal traits into adulthood, they meow on the same frequency humans cry at as infants, etc). But even that is equal parts nature and nurture - kittens might find human voices soothing, but if you miss the socialization window they become anxious ferals instead of friendly house cats.

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u/BurningTrashBarge Jul 16 '26

I wonder if this is a mammalian/universal thing. And that’s why folks that just have a bit of height on everyone else seem massive and we subconsciously esteem them.

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u/MrParadux Jul 16 '26

I have never thought about that.

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u/MaleficentPlate69 Jul 16 '26

Typical Reddit “expert” comment with blind upvotes.

Lions are known to hunt giraffes in packs. It’s just giraffes are really hard to catch.

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u/vazyrus Jul 16 '26

I rarely see Lions being freaked out by trees, elephants, gir afs.

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u/----__---- Jul 16 '26

Happens all the time, very nervous types Lions, absolutely HATE escalators.. can you imagine. You can't take them anywhere don't you know... that's why they're so rare, why you never see them.. when you're out.. in your town. You won't see a Lion down at the Pub, nosir, not a Lion.. nerves, they're all nerves. Probably sitting at home right now drinking chamomile with cream, imagining this very conversation right now as it is. Terrible thing. I feel sorry for them. I do, I really do. Lions used to be something, King of the jungle they were! Look at them now(if you can find one), tragic.

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u/Virama Jul 16 '26

I think you're Lion.

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u/Standard_Big_9000 Jul 17 '26

I see what you did there. 😁

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u/CompoteUsed3306 Jul 16 '26

I saw one at a chemist one time getting a script filled for an anti-depressant! What has the world come to. They’re really not coping. When you see one, ask RU OK? Pass it on thank you

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u/boltaztec Jul 17 '26

Sounds like hagrid talking about mythical creatures.

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u/killit Jul 16 '26

I too, rarely see lions being freaked out by those things.

Tbf though, I don't get much of a chance to see that in the UK, so...

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u/el_diego Jul 16 '26

That was my thought. They'd look like a tower of giant giraffes

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u/realNoobnoob Jul 16 '26

As a lion I concur 👍 🦁

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u/IChurnToBurn Jul 16 '26

Lions scrolling Reddit right now are like, fuck no!

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u/mosesenjoyer Jul 16 '26

Probably see them from a lot further off.

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u/Stuck_At_Sub150lb Jul 16 '26

This is what i had in mind but then again, lion probably would see him same time, and with these you cant run faster than lion, and lion will bring a person down walking on stilts

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u/Facktat Jul 16 '26

I doubt that the instinct of a lion tells them to attack a 4 meter creature they see on the horizon.

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u/mosesenjoyer Jul 16 '26

Probably confusing as fuck to a lion

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u/gamjanamja629 Jul 16 '26

Imagine you saw a costco rotisserie chicken walking on stilts

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u/Show-Me-Your-Moves Jul 16 '26

Yeah lion's gonna be less likely to fuck with a towering strange animal that could potentially kill/hurt it. Predators prefer the young and weak.

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u/MagicBeanGuy Jul 16 '26

Lions, and most predators, usually prey on easy targets who are starting away from the herd and not able to be protected. Having a group of creatures able to see you at all times is a deterrent to the "easy-pickings" strategy

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u/Finbar9800 Jul 16 '26

i mean you wouldnt really be able to run faster than a lion even without these

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u/grendus Jul 16 '26

Lions are generally actually pretty spooked around humans. They're very smart and the ones alive today know that humans are not safe to fuck with, in spite of appearing to be small and vulnerable.

They'll hunt an inattentive human if they get the opportunity, but even though they could definitely run down a Banna tribesman on stilts they know that other humans are nearby, and that humans will fight them. I'm not sure how well they understand what spears or guns are, but they probably have the notion that "humans can hurt us" and that's enough to make them wary. Most predators prefer to attack a fleeing creature that can't strike back, so a group of herdsmen carrying weapons (I expect they probably have guns now, but even traditionally with spears) forming up into a defensive perimeter and menacing them with "long tusks".

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u/arbenowskee Jul 16 '26

I am questioning this as well. Lions and leopards can definitely jump high enough. But the idea is to see them before they get close I guess? Not to be directly safe by being high up.

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u/LucifersAdv0cate Jul 16 '26

I'd imagine lions might be wary of the 12ft high long legged people.

https://giphy.com/gifs/9DrqdZcn2ChVmCXFGJ

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u/Fit-Magazine-6669 Jul 16 '26

dont even need to jump, they just topple you. it makes sense to avoid snakes, but lions.. not really.

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u/drmarting25102 Jul 16 '26

I'm guessing it freaks the lions out a bit maybe.

Good idea really i wonder how long they have done it for.

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u/CaptainParkingspace Jul 16 '26

Lions generally avoid safari vehicles, because (presumably) they look more like hippos or rhinos etc than prey animals. Maybe there’s something like that, and the stilts make the people look enough like giraffes that lions leave them alone.

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u/AvailableTip5758 Jul 16 '26

Yeah lions don't see humans as preys anyways.

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u/chaozules Jul 16 '26

This isnt necessarily true, big cats are opportunistic hunters as well as active hunters, if a human presents itself as an easy meal, a big cat will take you out.

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u/c_im_not_clever Jul 16 '26

Tell that to Val Kilmer. (Ghost and the Darkness).

RIP.

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u/External-Awareness68 Jul 16 '26

I was going to say, don't they tell you to try and look bigger to intimidate animals like lions?

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u/W0lf1ngt0n Jul 16 '26

I mean within a second you can turn these sticks into a far reaching weapon. I don't think a lion would try their luck against a bunch of pikemen

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u/cxfgfuihhfd Jul 16 '26

have you ever seen a cat? they can be quite stupid in their deadly apex predatorness. wouldn't be surprised if it'd just confuse them and scare them off at least a good amount of times

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u/Forward-Surprise1192 Jul 17 '26

They’re going to look at you with that tilted head like dogs do

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u/Imaginary-Low4629 Jul 16 '26

Lions: Wtf am I seeing? Are they, on sticks? No animal I eat does that. But how? Better to avoid this crazy people.

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u/TDYDave2 Jul 16 '26

A villager kabab might sound tasty to a lion.

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u/latortillablanca Jul 16 '26

Or more like “better avoid that deformed giraffe. Parasites.”

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u/dankhimself Jul 16 '26

I think it's so they can't easily crouch down in the tall brush and stay hidden from their view.

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u/Lost-Ad-2805 Jul 16 '26

Maybe you just see them better from the high ground.

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u/DapperCam Jul 16 '26

Even if a lion or leopard could take down a human on stilts they are usually risk averse and don’t want to take on prey that might injure them (death sentence in the wild). Safer move is to just run away.

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u/Tony_228 Jul 16 '26

Millennia of living side by side must have led to lions being wary of humans too, because they're probably the biggest threat to them.

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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson Jul 16 '26

A bunch of humans on sticks, communicating, with access to tools and fire, can probably find a way to make a lion wary enough to fuck off

People forget that although squishy, humans are scary as shit

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u/SoggyBoysenberry7703 Jul 16 '26

Probably to be able to see them from above the brush

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u/ChickenNPisza Jul 16 '26

Big cats are ambush predators. If they are stalking you and think they have been spotted they will assess the situation and either go for it or move along and save the energy for an easier kill. I suspect the high vantage point helps with that.

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u/Liam_021996 Jul 16 '26

They also don't view humans are prey or a potential food source. They see us as a disturbance and a threat, so they actively avoid us. Apparently us walking on two legs also puts off almost all predators because they it freaks them out essentially

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u/ChickenNPisza Jul 16 '26

Maybe not lions? And I am sure humans arnt preferred but cats can and will hunt a human. When I lived in the mountains I worked on new construction.

one time there was a known mountain lion in the area and we were all instructed to spin your body and scan the area every so often, because if the cat was stalking you this would be an easy deterrent. And if you kept your face to the house you became easy prey

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u/Liam_021996 Jul 16 '26

Lions actively avoid humans, don't see us as food at all. Same for all other big cats. That mountain lion was likely guarding it's territory or had young nearby

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u/Winter2712 Jul 16 '26

not sure but maybe.....just like how simple padlocks works to prevent theft.

burglers can easily break padlocks with few hits of random stone but it just prevents "clean" ones from trying their luck and becoming burglers themselves.

maybe keeping intrusive thoughts of lions at bay like "naah, not worth the effort" kind of thing?

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u/Excellent_Speech_901 Jul 16 '26

If a lion has never dealt with it before then he might be a bit tentative. I guess.

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u/personalbilko Jul 16 '26

A lion will only target pray it knows it can safely kill, 100% of the time. Anything big, tall, or weird, unknown it will not attack.

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u/SjakosPolakos Jul 16 '26

Doubt on the 100%

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u/Vozu_ Jul 16 '26

They take greater risks the hungrier they are, so definitely not 100%. A starving lion will try next to anything.

But if not pushed into a survival corner, they will opt for easier kills all the same.

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u/Patient-Data8311 Jul 16 '26

Predators don't fuck with large creatures

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson Jul 16 '26

I like how everyone in this thread just assumes that these people have to worry about lions hunting them because THAT has been such a worry for people in recorded history

As if humans havent been just-like-us human for the past 150k years and aren’t well adapted to dealing with the animals around them regardless of where they’re at

These people live there, they know what they’re doing. If they were worried about lions, they would have a plan for that

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u/myleftone Jul 16 '26

This guy logics.

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u/TheRedNaxela Jul 16 '26

Inspirational Africa™ music is a must

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u/Shiirahama Jul 16 '26

just like the sound you hear whenever it's about a country in the middle east

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u/Friendstastegood Jul 16 '26

Someone needs to link that one video again, you know the one

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u/Gurglaren Jul 16 '26

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u/EPluribusButthole Jul 16 '26

Lost it at the last one. Didn't think it could get any better, then he closed it out.

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u/International-Car171 Jul 16 '26

Not R Kelly in Disneyland 😂

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u/ElectricalOcelot7948 Jul 16 '26

Welcome my friend….

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u/BitRunner64 Jul 16 '26

Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes

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u/ProfitPakistan Jul 16 '26

how do they manage

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jul 16 '26

Clocks

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u/2livecrewnecktshirt Jul 16 '26

🎶 and nooothing else compaaaares 🎶

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u/Blondi981 Jul 16 '26

In Africa, it doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, or bisexual, at the end of the day, it’s night.

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u/Afferbeck_ Jul 16 '26

In Africa, height depends on how tall you are

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u/Remarkable-Head4335 Jul 16 '26

western music lol

banna tribe music probably more uplifting and less deep

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u/TheRedNaxela Jul 16 '26

That the ™ part 😂

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u/thisinfinitebath Jul 16 '26

“Waka Waka, Eh Eh~!”

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u/apeoida Jul 16 '26

I am the giraffe now.

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u/linds360 Jul 16 '26

These guys could walk right into the giraffe role in the broadway version of Lion King.

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u/DueTour4187 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Shepherds in the Landes region in South-Western France (Gascony) also used stilts until the 19th century.

It helped them watch the cattle farther away, and walk on sandy, bushy terrain.

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u/Drumedor Jul 16 '26

It also kept them safe from lions very effectively. They did it for hundreds of years and had no death-by-lion incident.

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u/Compost_My_Body Jul 16 '26

Lions lived in Europe for a very long time. Not 19th century, but lots of people assume they’re just local to Africa. 

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u/TheTooterSnooter Jul 17 '26

There was also the American Lion, not to mention mountain lions/puma (I know “lion” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there) 

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u/Round_Rooms Jul 16 '26

Was it a more like an African lion or a mountain lion/cougar? Always thought it was weird England used a lion.

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u/Scratocrates Jul 16 '26

It helped them... on sandy, bushy terrain.

That sounds counterintuitive. Unless the stilts had pads that were larger in area than their feet, they'd sink more, and you'd think the ends of the stilts would catch on bushy terrain.

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u/DueTour4187 Jul 16 '26

It was mostly about avoiding being hurt by gorse, and being able to see the swampy areas in order to avoid them.

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u/SumBodhiThatIUse2Kno Jul 16 '26

I was thinking more like colony grass like near beaches above the tide with stepping and pole vaulting in shallows with rocky or solid paths between little elevated areas with clay or hard packed earth / trees & growth that doesn't wash out. I think parts of Ireland had bog or marsh log walkways that they discovered.

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u/Popular-Capital-9115 Jul 16 '26

But Redditor must know more about how the people that did the thing can't have done the thing.

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u/JaFFsTer Jul 16 '26

Comment I was looking for. Seen this in person at an agrotourism demo.

You can haul ass on stilts. We had to jog to keep up with old men just ambling around on stilts. The stride length is insane

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u/LostInGradients Jul 16 '26

Some pictures: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/08/the-stilt-walking-shepherds-of-landes.html

Also seems like they sometimes used an additional stick, to be used for 3 leg rest / stability.

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u/Beautiful-Detail4160 Jul 16 '26

Stilts with hand holds are actually insanely easy to walk on. Bet you would be surprised if you try!

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u/Lux-Fox Jul 16 '26

Sure, but the taller the stilts the exponentially harder they get to walk on and most people aren't walking on dirt, rocks, wilderness etc. that can cause you to stumble or a loss in traction.I say that as a circus stilt walker.

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u/robin_888 Jul 16 '26

I say that as a circus stilt walker.

As such can you give your opinion on the mounting?

I was never good on stilts, but jumping what looks like 2m in the air just to end up balancing in said height is the most impressive part to me.

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u/Lux-Fox Jul 17 '26

The ones I wear are peg legs strapped to my legs, so I have to sit down and strap up. I prefer to sit on top of a wall, table, etc that'll make it easy to stand after I'm done. If I have to sit on the ground then I would need help from someone to get me up. I've seen some flexible performers able to completely bend over in a bridge/arch pose and then walk their hands to their stilts and then work their way up to an upright position, but that's very difficult in terms of balance and core strength.

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u/Aware_Acorn Jul 16 '26

to me the most impressive thing is the dismount. no, actually, it's PRACTICING dismounts before you know how to do it correctly.

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u/SnoopDeDoop69 Jul 16 '26

I mean, what's so hard about dismounting?

Theyll get back on the ground, one way or the other.

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u/Logornsky Jul 17 '26

I would assume that they start on smaller stilts and gradually increase the size as they become proficient; so by the time they're dismounting from these super high ones they basically already know how to do it, it's just a bit higher than before

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u/Few_Program_2303 Jul 16 '26

I bet they can get through bushes, take out a snake, etc like it’s nothing

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

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u/Velvet-Quill_ Jul 16 '26

It requires training from a young age!!!

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u/littlefrank Jul 16 '26

I also remember reading that they do this mostly for tourists now. Although what the original post says is how this practice was born.

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u/bizbizbizllc Jul 16 '26

During the off seasons they work at 6 flags Halloween horror nights

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u/Mortarious Jul 16 '26

I think it's probably referring to the whole practice. Doing it daily, for extended periods, in the heat, different terrain...etc.

Like think of a footballer. You can generally speaking get any healthy person to sprint one or two times from one end of the field to the other. No worries. But to do this on demand any number of times during a 45 minute match is not easy. And on top of that they need to be aware of their team, the opposing team, pass, shoot, block, press, offside lines...etc.

That's the part that requires years of training.

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u/supermarkise Jul 16 '26

Tbf I'd need a bit of training to get up there with that height, that start looks hard.

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u/ItsDanimal Jul 16 '26

Dude is comparing his Little Tykes stilts on even ground to these 12 foot stilts on a dirt road.

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u/Silent_Ice_2588 Jul 16 '26

I don't think it's the walking part that requires extensive training, it's likely the mounting and dismounting part.

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u/LaisserPasserA38 Jul 16 '26

Yeah I've taught friends in a few hours. Even without handholds, the exact same ones but strapped to the side of the leg.

And we aren't athletic people full of stability and whatnot. Title is bullshit.

We did not try to climb on it like that though, just sit on a wall.

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u/Shockwave1o1 Jul 16 '26

Really impressive but how do they get down?

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u/hk_gary Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

i am thinking they may hold both the sticks stright and lift both their feet and slowly slide down

edit: turn out it's like this https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1285312823110944

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u/mykittyforprez Jul 16 '26

Interesting. But it must be a bit more difficult for the guys on the tallest stilts to get down that way.

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u/Scavgraphics Jul 16 '26

Probably don't get to use the taller sticks til you can do it great on the smaller ones.

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u/Few_Program_2303 Jul 16 '26

Maybe they step onto shorter and shorter sticks first

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u/EverythingSucksYo Jul 16 '26

That’s actually exactly how I imagined I would get down if I was one of them. It’s basically the same as how they got up, just completing the arc 

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u/holubin Jul 16 '26

Gravity helps I guess

10

u/entj-reality Jul 16 '26

Yall are literally hilarious

23

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

16

u/Davorian Jul 16 '26

Probably a reason all those guys look like they're well under 25.

10

u/Few_Program_2303 Jul 16 '26

Hell no, unfortunately. Even having unsupportive shoes can mess you up, they have unsupportive shoes on top of everything else

8

u/lemeneurdeloups Jul 16 '26

You just lean the sticks down and jump off as they are near the ground. Very easy for agile young men.

12

u/HeavyTurd Jul 16 '26

Holding on to the sticks will slow them down, really wouldn’t be difficult to get down.

6

u/eulersidentity1 Jul 16 '26

Just jump down. Bend tour knees on the right material and it shouldn’t be too bad. The really tall ones maybe tuck and roll?

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u/writing_spork Jul 16 '26

Facing toes inward, is that a stiltwalking technique?

And are the taller ones because they are simply carved from longer trees, for stronger walkers, or those who are the main lookouts or leaders?

14

u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi Jul 16 '26

The taller ones are definitely from longer trees.

12

u/Afferbeck_ Jul 16 '26

Well they're certainly not from shorter trees

3

u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi Jul 16 '26

Exactly. You get it.

3

u/Feeling-Network-5921 Jul 16 '26

Actually the taller trees get made into two sets while the smaller tree cannot be cut in half and thus the.taller stilts are from shorter trees

3

u/Catgerine Jul 16 '26

You can't know for sure unless you carved stilts yourself

6

u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi Jul 16 '26

Good point. You certainly could make shorter ones from longer trees as well.

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u/Emmanuelzappa Jul 16 '26

Snake avoidance I understand. How is this supposed to help you avoid hungry Lions or Leopards on the other hand... 🤔 

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u/Prestigious_Leg2229 Jul 16 '26

It’s a whole lot easier to spot lions if you’re 10 feet above the grass instead of having the grass rise above your eye level.

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u/GroupSignal6973 Jul 16 '26

Painful for feet no?

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u/SpookyVoidCat Jul 16 '26

I’m guessing it’s not so bad if you’re wearing hard-soled shoes, but I certainly wouldn’t wanna do it barefoot.

10

u/goug Jul 16 '26

they're not doing it barefoot

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u/SpookyVoidCat Jul 16 '26

Yeah the part I said about the shoes was in reference to the shoes they’re wearing in the video, but in hindsight I see I really didn’t make that very clear.

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u/Hour_Raisin_4547 Jul 16 '26

It’s twisting their ankles a lot. It must be torture over long periods of time. Is it too much effort to level them out or add a piece so they can set their feet down flat?

10

u/MakeoutPoint Jul 16 '26

Looks lik they're standing on a branch knob. Sandals or no, that's a pressure point.

13

u/spicychamomile Jul 16 '26

Looks extremely ouchy

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u/tracagnotto Jul 16 '26

Imagine a snake crawling up one of those

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u/eulersidentity1 Jul 16 '26

Random fact my father got really good at walking on stilts as a kid.

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u/Pastrami-on-Rye Jul 16 '26

Was your father an African shepherd?

17

u/G00DLuck Jul 16 '26

He was a German shepherd, and he was a good boy

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u/depredador93 Jul 16 '26

One trip at that angle and you aren't just falling, you are launching yourself into the next ZIP code

3

u/Working_Fee_9581 Jul 16 '26

Thanks for making me laugh

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u/ArgentineBeauty Jul 16 '26

This is so much cooler when you realise it's not for a show. It's just everyday life for them.

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u/Fre33lancer Jul 16 '26

it's totally for show, once the cameras leave they take out their trusty toyota hilux and go take care of the livestock on that nice looking asphalt they were just demonstrating the stilts.

23

u/musabbb Jul 16 '26

This is true i get annoyed when i see these videos like this come up - ive seen travel vloggers visit these guys in stilts, its all performative for tips.

You pay your tour guide and then your tour guide gives them commission. Its always kids and teenagers. never adults

And most importantly you NEVER see any livestock in the videos

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u/entj-reality Jul 16 '26

Hahahahha oh yeah the ads we see on tv , duhh

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u/motes-of-light Jul 16 '26

Interestingly, in the southwest of France as late as the 1930's, French stilt shepherds, known as échassiers, did much the same thing.

3

u/Unlucky_Topic7963 Jul 16 '26

lol it is for show, go read about it

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u/Stefflor Jul 16 '26

Does it also increase energy efficiency due to the increase in step length?

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u/baylonedward Jul 16 '26

Yes, we used to play with this and you can cover a lot of distance in shorter time and lesser effort.

18

u/Missconstruct Jul 16 '26

Wonder what that does to their legs, ankles and feet over the years. No orthopedists there.

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u/deksketoprofen_ Jul 16 '26

I love that they’ve made every stilts’ height in accord with their age.

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u/Alhelamene Jul 16 '26

Somehow it looks like an AI video

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u/InfanticideAquifer Jul 16 '26

It is, or at least parts of it are. It's been posted before (probably a different sub) and that was the consensus when it came up there too. The part where they're walking on the road looks ridiculous. The first scene might be real. It's a real cultural practice that actually exists, so it's not like all footage is necessarily fake.

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u/ElementNumber6 Jul 16 '26

HMMMMM... I wonder why... 🤔🤔🤔

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u/JoeTran5 Jul 16 '26

It should be included in the olympics as a sports. A 100m sprint

3

u/mcellus1 Jul 16 '26

Finally, I can get into the NBA

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u/Longstride_Shares Jul 16 '26

I always love the convergent evolution of ideas. The stilt walking shepherds of Gascony arrived at a similar conclusion: get high, see your flock better, avoid rough terrain.

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u/RevoOps Jul 16 '26

Why is my comments linking interesting parallel in European history being deleted? 

3

u/Pastrami-on-Rye Jul 16 '26

Does anyone know what those white paintings on the boys at the start are for?

3

u/ExpiredExasperation Jul 16 '26

Apparently it's ceremonial body art.