OVERVIEW & RESOURCES for Experienced Trackers

“I would tell technical trackers that intuitive tracking would enrich their tracking practice because it would allow them to track the animal farther over more difficult terrain and also to develop a more heart-felt relationship to the animal, so that the animal is not so much a problem to figure out but a companion or a teacher. It makes the entire tracking experience so much richer.
~Kelly”

As an experienced tracker, you are well positioned to bring intuitive tracking into your repertoire and expand what you can do.

  • You can easily engage technical tracking skills to verify intuitive impressions you get.

  • The rhythm and mood of an animal that you read in tracks, through its gait, speed and soil movement, can lead directly to an intuitive connection with the animal.

  • The heightened awareness and openness you must use to read great subtlety in tracks - for example faint compressions - already puts you at the very threshold of the intuitive.

If your training and field work have primarily emphasized track and sign identification, then it will help to begin visualizing animals’ movement through the tracks, rather than merely assign a name to a track pattern. This enables you to picture and feel the particular personality of the animal you’re tracking, thus allowing an intuitive reading (see the link to Gait & Track Interpretation below). Also it helps to practice marking every track on a trail, especially in challenging terrain, to engage your awareness of subtlety.

See our supporting resources below.

WALK WITH THE ANIMAL. A TRACKING METHODOLOGY

by Jim Lowery

Any tracker encountering a fresh trail is tantalized by the prospect of following it to enter the animal's world. How can this be done? How is it possible to follow a trail across difficult terrain? To keep on the trail of even a mouse? To follow a trail that is weeks old?

Veteran tracking instructor Jim Lowery spent two and a half years perfecting practical and intuitive methods for trailing animals. He tracked humans, bears, deer, kit foxes, kangaroo rats and cottontails, among many other species; some trails were minutes old and some more than a month. He discovered that the secrets of such tracking reside in one's initial contact with the trail, as well as in one's mental attitude. Techniques to "walk with the animal" rather than just look for tracks are discussed and then illuminated through 30 case examples.

Intuitive tracking is discussed and illustrated at length, a subject touched on by few contemporary tracking references. Stunning illustrations by Maura Jess are included in the book.

Available at our ONLINE STORE at earthskills.com

MAMMAL TRACKING WORKBOOK II: Gaits & Track Interpretation

by Jim Lowery

The full richness of a trail emerges when you can visualize precisely the speed, gait, posture and body language of your animal from its tracks. With the right approach, any dedicated tracker can do this, and I designed this workbook to show you how and provide a lot of practice with examples, assignments and high-resolution photos to interpret. (The workbook grew out of many gait and animal movement classes we have taught since 2001.) This pdf file is designed for zooming in and out as you study track sequences. The workbook is supported by six gait videos viewable elsewhere on this website at no charge. This is a truly unique resource in today's expanding world of track study.

Digital PDF Download Version is available at our ONLINE STORE at earthskills.com