Are African trackers really that good?

[Will_m]

Had a quasi colleague tell me about a safari he went on a few years ago and he went on and on about African trackers ability. According to him, they can basically track the memory of a ghost over hard rock.

Seriously he claims that a tracker could follow an animal (not blood trail) a mile or more. I don’t consider this guy to be a woodsman, so I’m pretty skeptical. On one hand I could see such a large animal leaving a lot of sign which would make a better track, but on the other, I’m still dubious about following a specific animal a mile or more in forested/grasslans. I’m more inclined to believe they make a best guess and follow some animal’s sign, so when they strike one up, it looks to the uninitiated like he tracked it down. All this guy did from what I could tell was follow a bunch of other folks around so it’s kind of hard to take him seriously.

(Not an African bashing thread but memes welcome)

 

[Poser]

Watch the recent MeatEater episode series on hunting in Tanzania. Its probably the most insight into tracker skills that I've seen. I'm not a guy who's at all interested in African Hunting, but that series is really good. I believe its 3 parts, maybe 4.

 

[2531usmc]

I was amazed at how well the trackers followed game. But remember, they do this every day for a living

 

[MountainTracker]

I know some pretty good trackers, seen them follow sign on hard pan for much longer than you would think possible. They weren’t from Africa.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[robtattoo]

You ever see a Damara Dikdik?

Pic for example......


They have hooves roughly the size of your pinky fingernail.
A buddy of mine bow shot one in Namibia in '08 & we had to call in some San trackers. They tracked it by footprint alone for about 200yds across a mix of hardpan & rock through scrub you couldn't see 20 feet in. They literally tracked straight to it, first go. No backing up, no returning to the past spoor, just methodically took a step, looked, pointed & took another step.

It was honestly spectacular to see.

The PH told me (and I don't know the truth of it) that they start learning to track pretty much as soon as they can walk. Their father makes a mark in a tortoise's shell & releases it at dark. The kid has to track & return with their own tortoise before they get to eat. Apparently, they're pretty much experts by the time they're 5.

 

[TaperPin]

While they aren’t all trackers, anyone with better than 20/20 vision see things the rest of us just don’t. Here they may go into a field that doesn’t even require good sight. I worked with a dude who could see things across a room I’d have to walk within 10’ to see. Sort of his super hero skill and he was amazingly good at fine finish work. Since him I’ve met one other person with really spot on vision like that. Maybe 1 out of 100 people I’ve been around. The biggest hassle of tracking is getting down low enough to see the subtle clues, and someone who sees them farther away is miles ahead of everyone else. In those remote villages I have no doubt kids grow up knowing who sees well and tracks well, and the best get the few well paying tracking jobs.

Knowing how the visitor trades work, there’s going to be a good amount of puffery, especially to the tourists, because who is going to question it when they are the only ones focused carefully on the sign. lol

 

[loganwayne]

I was amazed at how well the trackers followed game. But remember, they do this every day for a living

and before they did it for a living, they did it to survive.

 

[OregonSteeler]

You ever see a Damara Dikdik?

Pic for example......
View attachment 978790

They have hooves roughly the size of your pinky fingernail.
A buddy of mine bow shot one in Namibia in '08 & we had to call in some San trackers. They tracked it by footprint alone for about 200yds across a mix of hardpan & rock through scrub you couldn't see 20 feet in. They literally tracked straight to it, first go. No backing up, no returning to the past spoor, just methodically took a step, looked, pointed & took another step.

It was honestly spectacular to see.

The PH told me (and I don't know the truth of it) that they start learning to track pretty much as soon as they can walk. Their father makes a mark in a tortoise's shell & releases it at dark. The kid has to track & return with their own tortoise before they get to eat. Apparently, they're pretty much experts by the time they're 5.

My two teenage sons can't find a hat if it were sitting on their damn heads! One of them swore they lost their school notebook after 20min of looking, which was sitting in plain sight on the counter.

I may employ this can't eat methodology into my parenting style.... Thanks for the tip.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Ya cahnt Have enny pudding if ya doont eet me yer meet! Ahnd foind yer damn hat!!

 

[Samson7x]

Yes, they are good. Particularly the ones I've met from Zimbabwe.