Top Tracking Tips

 For the past week, the students at Karongwe have undertaken an intensive tracking course that covered in excess of 50 different spoor, ranging from elephants to mice.  Under the expert supervision of Lawrence and Norman from the highly acclaimed Tracker Academy, the students have honed their skills leave with a deeper understanding of one of the most ancient and important arts that only an elite few have mastered.

Here are some top tips that have passed on during the last fascinating week

·         1. Think Outside the Box’.  Instructors will circle a solitary track in the sand, but looking at one track is like reading one chapter of a book and trying to understand the entire piece of literature.  Animals leave a variety of tracks in different substrates so it is always advisable to check up and down the path on the chance that a better example can be found.

A solitary tracked circled by the instructor

         2. Get Up Close and Personal’.  Tracking is about detail.  The presence of a faint claw mark might be the difference between an obscured African wildcat and civet track.  One cannot pick up enough information from a standing position so get down on one knee, or even your stomach, to ensure that every detail can be seen and taken into account!

Getting up close and personal

·         3. Know Your Enemy’.  Sometimes there is not enough discernible information in the track to successfully identify the species.  However, an in depth knowledge of its behaviour and habitat can help you narrow down the selection.  In a riverbed, a bushbuck track and grey duiker track can be almost identical, but bushbucks love riverine vegetation and thus chances are this will be the culprit!

·         4. Trust Your Gut’.  With the amount of knowledge that has been imparted of the past week, students often over think a track, trying to recall every feature of every track they have learned.  However, this can be problematic and you can start to second guess yourself.  Whilst a thorough examination of the evidence is important, your first impression is usually the correct one and if in doubt, trust those instincts!

·         5 Weigh Up the Evidence’.  Animals come in all shapes and sizes and will walk on a variety of different substrates.  An impala will leave a very different track on a sandy road than it will in the mud next to a waterhole.  Hooves will splay and soil will be more displaced as it sinks deeper into the mud.  Take this into account when examining the track as logical thinking and knowledge of different soil types just might help you decipher a tricky track!

Student looking to identify the track

·         6. Pace Yourself’.  The positioning of the left, right, front and back feet can give you lots of information at the animal in question.  The distance between the same 2 feet will give you a reasonably accurate measurement of its body length (ie front right foot to the next front right foot).  You can try this yourself: walk normally across the ground and then lie down with your feet level with one track.  The top of your head will rest very close to the next register of the same foot.  This can be vital in gathering enough evidence upon which to base your identification of a particular track.

·         7. Take it in Your Stride’.  The speed of the animal will dictate the purity of the track that it left behind.  A slow walk will leave a much better impression in the substrate than one moving at high speeds.  A running animal might slip and leave a more elongated track that, at first glance, might lead your astray (refer to Facebook post from 8 April 2015)

·         8. Let There Be Light’.  Tracks are best viewed at early morning or late afternoon when the Sun is low in the sky.  The detail in the track is far more visible when contrast is available thanks to light and shadow.  In harsh light, use your hand to create shade and play with the light available to enhance any subtle nuances

Looking at the track from the right angle

·         9. Line of Sight’.  Viewing the track from the correct direction is very important.  Trying to identify spoor whilst looking at it ‘upside down’ can confuse the brain and hinder you from making the correct assumptions as to its design.  Figure out direction first and look at the track from behind to get a better feel of what may have walked there!

·        10. Go Toe to Toe’.  Sometimes there is not enough information contained in the track to identify a particular species but there may be a repetitive pattern.  Knowledge of the natural rhythm, or gait, of an animal may help to narrow down your options:  does the track suggest bounding or hopping, walking or running?  The simple arrangement, coupled with other evidence such as size might be enough to reach a satisfactory conclusion!

Norman and Lawrence gives some information about the track found

Blog and photos by Ben Coley

Sundowner Surprise at Karongwe

We were nearing the end of the Level 1 55 day course at Karongwe Camp and
as is usually the case at this time in the course the students, who were now
preparing for their practical assessments, were now starting to explore the
area for a suitable route for each of their assessments whilst brushing up
on a few of their guiding skills. We left camp in the late afternoon and
wound our way through the woodland north of Camp towards an area known as
Beacon Rock. On the way, our "guide for the day", Katarina, stopped to point
out many interesting birds, flowers, trees and animal tracks from the game
drive vehicle.
Katarina had asked each of her guests, before leaving camp, what animal or
interest they had, and for one of the few times during the course, nobody
said "Leopard"!
One of the vehicles driving from a commercial camp in the reserve had found
a 3 Cheetahs in the direction we were headed, but Katarina and the group
decided to avoid the sighting and stick to the original plan of reaching
Beacon Rock for sundowners!!
Whilst winding our way down a road, having a small competition of "who can
identify that tree" as one tends to do from time to time on these courses,
thankfully our guide had her eyes on the road and when the vehicle came to
an abrupt stop, we all looked to the road to see what had caused the sudden
halt!
There in the road no more than 50 meters from the vehicle was a magnificent
female Leopard. She stopped for a few seconds to look at us, and then to
everyone's amazement, she just continued walking straight towards the
vehicle.
Straight away, we noticed that one of her eyes was darker in colour and in
fact was all "cloudy" in appearance. I have seen this a few times over the
years in big cats and in nearly all the cases I have witnessed, it was from
a bad injury to the eye that could have been caused by a claw of another
Leopard whilst fighting, an antelope's hoof to the eye or another such
injury. The amazing thing is that it doesn’t seem to impede the cat's in any
serious way from carrying out their day to day functions. One Leopard I
followed lived over 10 years after sustaining such an injury and
successfully raised a few litters of cubs in the process!
Anyway, back to the leopard in the road!! Just a few meters short of the
vehicle she moved into the bush to allow herself some breathing space before
returning to the road and resuming her march, stopping once in a while to
elegantly scent mark her territory with urine.
We followed at a distance that she was comfortable with for about 600meters,
before she decided to head off the road and into the open woodland. This
was a perfect opportunity for our guide to get some off road driving practice
in!!
We followed her watching her movements to predict the best route for the
Land Rover to take, avoiding all trees, such as Sickle Bush whose large hard
spines will deflate a tyre as quick as a six inch nail!! After about 100
meters into the bush, the Leopard stopped and put her nose into the air and
sniffed once. She then let out a vocalization that safari guides live for. A
short grunt followed by a few loud sniff like noises, then repeated them. I
quickly explained to the group, that what she had done, was to try contact
another Leopard at close quarters, possibly and hopefully young.
She called a once more and moved slightly deeper into the bush, where we
lost sight of her for a second. The anticipation and excitement on the
vehicle was electric, and we after repositioning the vehicle we saw what we
were hoping for. A Leopard cub bounded out of the grass to greet its mother,
and we watched as the two played and groomed.
After having enjoyed the Leopards for nearly an hour, we left them moving
into thick bush too thick for a Land Rover to follow, but we had all had a
fantastic time watching and learning about Leopards.
So next time your Safari Guide asks you your interest before a drive,
perhaps, Trees or Birds should be your response!?

Photos supplied by Joep