By Louis Liebenberg, Adriaan Louw and Mark Elbroch
Soft cover, 344 pages
$29.95 + $5.09 Shipping
Available from:
globepequot.com
1-800-223-2336
Subtitled “A Guide to Following Footprints & Finding Animals,” this is a highly detailed work on tracking with all of its aspects written by skilled American and South African trackers.
It covers both systemic and speculative tracking in great detail.
Systemic tracking is the careful following of the spoor while speculative tracking takes into account an intimate knowledge of the animal being tracked and how it will interact with the terrain at hand under the prevailing circumstances.
According to the book, when tracking fast moving game, there may not be time for systemic tracking and when following dangerous game you must keep looking ahead for danger instead of constantly having your eyes fixed on the ground. Systemic tracking must therefore be done with just quick glances down, a feat requiring superb skill, or the use of a second tracker while the hunter looks ahead. A good tracker with an intimate knowledge of the game and the land can predict where the animal is going, enabling you to pursue it with a high probability of success. For fast moving game anticipating its route and heading it off at a future point may be the only option.
This book endeavors to cover tracking better than all previous books on the subject. There are very detailed chapters on footprints, gaits and track patterns, determining spoor age and reconstructing activities, spoor recognition, anticipating spoor and making predictions, staying alert and anticipating danger, stealth, learning to track, safety, and tracking different animals.
For anyone who has ever been dazzled by the uncanny skill of a good tracker you can now see in detail what it entails and how he did it. Much more important, he can learn how to do it himself if he has the perseverance.
As a hunter who has had to depend on his tracking skills for success many times, I can confidently endorse this book. Tracking is one of our oldest hunting skills and yet it is almost a lost art among today’s hunters, who normally possess only a rudimentary knowledge of tracking at best. It is not an exaggeration to say that many couldn’t follow fresh tracks in soft mud for far without losing them among other tracks of the same species. Careful study of this book and applying its teachings with constant practice will enable the reader to attain competency in this vital hunting skill.—Jim Dickson
