About Tracking and Bird Language
What is Tracking about?
Trackers learn to read tracks and sign in order to “get inside” animal’s minds much the same way a reader enters into the world of a novel. Since animals move between different environments, tracking also involves learning to understand the ecology from the animal’s point of view.
Most animals are active at night and rarely show themselves during the day, so trackers, in effect, move backwards and forwards in time, learning how to visualize animal’s lives. Even beginning trackers soon develop awareness of the richness and complexity of the unseen animal life around them.
Tracking generally involves finding tracks and sign and the creation of a story to explain what the tracks tell us.
Tracking is less focused on identification and more on understanding animals lives, less on answers, more on questions. Tracking involves slowing down, grounding skills, both close and wide observation, exposure to the skills and lore of trackers, and an ever deepening appreciation of Nature. An attitude of gratitude soon develops in most trackers as they participate more fully in the natural world.
article:
Why Tracking?
By
Jim Sullivan
There are at least three kinds of tracking: Hunt to kill Tracking, Man Tracking, and Recreational Tracking. The original form of tracking was hunt to kill for food tracking, practiced not only by our human ancestors, but beyond the human horizon back to the beginnings of biology itself.
Man tracking refers to search and rescue tracking and the tracking of criminals.
Recreational tracking as it is developing today is derived from the traditional food gathering techniques of original people everywhere. My lineage comes directly and indirectly from Mark Elbroch, Tom Brown, Jon Young and others, including Renais Mhlongo and Alex Van den Heever, founders of the African Tracking school. Much of this lineage is derived from the Apache scout traditions of the Southwest as transmitted to Tom Brown by Stalking Wolf, from the Kalahari desert trackers, and from the Shangaan trackers of South Africa, with contributions from many other traditional and modern sources...and my own years of hunting and tracking.
As recreational trackers, we employ the techniques of traditional trackers to develop a deep understanding of animal life and of the environment they live in. Most animals are nocturnal and seldom seen. But by studying tracks we come to understand much about their lives. Trackers speak of getting inside the minds of animals. We teach ourselves to read tracks in much the same way we read a novel: our minds learn to generate an animated picture of the animal world, moving backward and forward in time, just as we do in a novel. We can almost live in that world, just as we almost live in a good novel.
Tracking is similar to athletics, or the martial arts, or to music, or art or business, or other disciplines, in that studying and practicing any of these strengthens and refines character and makes us more effective and confident players in the world. We are all trackers in our own worlds. Most of us are pretty good in own affairs. To learn to apply these traditional tracking techniques is to open ourselves to an important part of the human heritage and to explore some of the fundamental modes of human awareness that have enabled us to survive and prosper for millions of years.
Tracking is a discipline, but in some ways is an easy and natural thing to do. It is really a lot of fun. I think our brains evolved around activities like tracking so we are naturally prepared to operate as trackers, problem solvers.
Tracking is a form of problem solving. We learn to formulate and take personal responsibility for our own success. The ancient techniques enable us to do that: We study track identification, gait analysis, environmental analysis, sign and scat tracking, food chain analysis, bird language, rigorous ways of seeing, grounding, focus, the attitude of gratitude, how to open our senses, coyote teaching, and more.
A tracking session might consist of a short grounding ritual, then finding tracks and sign, analyzing them, and finally as a group mutually creating a narrative to explain what we are seeing. So tracking is both analytic and creative at the same time. It uses both sides of our brains.
Tracking seems to be on the way to becoming the next bird watching, but the focus is different. We do not keep life lists and the purpose is not to identify as many tracks as possible. Instead, we are trying to get inside the minds of the local animals, the way our ancestors did for millions of years.
Trackers learn to read tracks and sign in order to “get inside” animal’s minds much the same way a reader enters into the world of a novel. Since animals move between different environments, tracking also involves learning to understand the ecology from the animal’s point of view.
Most animals are active at night and rarely show themselves during the day, so trackers, in effect, move backwards and forwards in time, learning how to visualize animal’s lives. Even beginning trackers soon develop awareness of the richness and complexity of the unseen animal life around them.
Tracking generally involves finding tracks and sign and the creation of a story to explain what the tracks tell us.
Tracking is less focused on identification and more on understanding animals lives, less on answers, more on questions. Tracking involves slowing down, grounding skills, both close and wide observation, exposure to the skills and lore of trackers, and an ever deepening appreciation of Nature. An attitude of gratitude soon develops in most trackers as they participate more fully in the natural world.
article:
Why Tracking?
By
Jim Sullivan
There are at least three kinds of tracking: Hunt to kill Tracking, Man Tracking, and Recreational Tracking. The original form of tracking was hunt to kill for food tracking, practiced not only by our human ancestors, but beyond the human horizon back to the beginnings of biology itself.
Man tracking refers to search and rescue tracking and the tracking of criminals.
Recreational tracking as it is developing today is derived from the traditional food gathering techniques of original people everywhere. My lineage comes directly and indirectly from Mark Elbroch, Tom Brown, Jon Young and others, including Renais Mhlongo and Alex Van den Heever, founders of the African Tracking school. Much of this lineage is derived from the Apache scout traditions of the Southwest as transmitted to Tom Brown by Stalking Wolf, from the Kalahari desert trackers, and from the Shangaan trackers of South Africa, with contributions from many other traditional and modern sources...and my own years of hunting and tracking.
As recreational trackers, we employ the techniques of traditional trackers to develop a deep understanding of animal life and of the environment they live in. Most animals are nocturnal and seldom seen. But by studying tracks we come to understand much about their lives. Trackers speak of getting inside the minds of animals. We teach ourselves to read tracks in much the same way we read a novel: our minds learn to generate an animated picture of the animal world, moving backward and forward in time, just as we do in a novel. We can almost live in that world, just as we almost live in a good novel.
Tracking is similar to athletics, or the martial arts, or to music, or art or business, or other disciplines, in that studying and practicing any of these strengthens and refines character and makes us more effective and confident players in the world. We are all trackers in our own worlds. Most of us are pretty good in own affairs. To learn to apply these traditional tracking techniques is to open ourselves to an important part of the human heritage and to explore some of the fundamental modes of human awareness that have enabled us to survive and prosper for millions of years.
Tracking is a discipline, but in some ways is an easy and natural thing to do. It is really a lot of fun. I think our brains evolved around activities like tracking so we are naturally prepared to operate as trackers, problem solvers.
Tracking is a form of problem solving. We learn to formulate and take personal responsibility for our own success. The ancient techniques enable us to do that: We study track identification, gait analysis, environmental analysis, sign and scat tracking, food chain analysis, bird language, rigorous ways of seeing, grounding, focus, the attitude of gratitude, how to open our senses, coyote teaching, and more.
A tracking session might consist of a short grounding ritual, then finding tracks and sign, analyzing them, and finally as a group mutually creating a narrative to explain what we are seeing. So tracking is both analytic and creative at the same time. It uses both sides of our brains.
Tracking seems to be on the way to becoming the next bird watching, but the focus is different. We do not keep life lists and the purpose is not to identify as many tracks as possible. Instead, we are trying to get inside the minds of the local animals, the way our ancestors did for millions of years.
