Books about tracking people and animals

One of my 2011 goals is to up my game in the tracking department. One thing I am doing is to read a bunch of books on tracking. Another will be to assemble a tracking gear kit. But the most fun will be in the field working on my tracking skills.

Along the way I thought I would share mini-reviews of the books, and a list of best tracking practices gleaned from the books.

"Animal Tracking Basics" by Jon Young and Tiffany Morgan, 2007, about 280 pages. My impression is the best use for this book is as a summer camp workbook for kids, coupled with a standard field guide like Peterson's Animal Tracks. Ms. Morgan writes well and I enjoyed the what she had to share. Mr. Young, as the first student of Tom Brown, Jr., wrote about interesting exercises in "air sculpting" to aid story-telling about animals, animal movement emulation, journaling, and mapping. For somewhat older folks, Mr. Young's writing could form the basis for discussions of appropriate human-animal interaction, the limits of knowledge versus speculation, various logical fallacies, defining and relying on intuition to understand nature, and science versus belief.

Rezendes, "Tracking & The Art of Seeing," a bit over 300 pages, 2d edition, 1999. "Tracking & The Art of Seeing" makes my short list. It is a visual feast, with wonderfully clear photographs of things at best diagrammed, but usually just described in words, in other tracking books. If pictures are worth a thousand words, then this 300 plus page book full of great photographs is an encyclopedia of tracking. In and around the photographs is a wealth of tracking notes. Highly recommended.

Liebenberg, Louw, and Elbroch. "Practical Tracking." Lions, elephants, and rhinos, on my! Pretty intense reasons for heads up and aware tracking. Read the Kindle version. No detailed "spoor" evaluation discussions, but lots of great trailing and awareness tips.

"Tracker," by Tom Brown Jr., 1978, 220 plus paperback pages. Almost a drunkard's walk of detail followed by generality, reporting external perception followed by believed-spiritual introspection. Tracking technique very specific in places, and broad reference elsewhere. Mostly a growing-up tale. I will do a separate commentary on this book along with three other Tom Brown, Jr. books I read a bit later.

Try looking for Animal Behaviour/Habitat materials such as trapping books,Bruce "Buckshot" Hemming has a few books that are Very worthy of owning as well as DVD's for instruction,Everything he's written is about as Layman/Analog as it gets,Very Informative!You could also look up Bushveld Trackers,Afterall that is where Human life began,also very informative,Good Luck!

Jack Kearney's, "Tracking: A Blueprint for Learning How", 1978, 150 pages. Very plainly written and quick to the point. Border Patrol man-tracking oriented but with clear photographs about tracks and signs applicable to animals.

This ultra-straightforward books covers many bases: awareness, sun angle, sign, slope and ground cover, aging, signcutting, track identification and description, and following non-visible trails, among others. Tracking gear is also discussed.

This book is on my short list. Highly recommended.

"Tracking: Signs of Man, Signs of Hope" by David Diaz, 2005, about 220 pages. Mostly combat tracking. Some on pressure release-type tracking and interpretation, some sign and aging also covered. Interesting identification of the finest trackers in the world as indigenous Malays, Dyak/Iban of Brunei, Nigrito aborigines of the Philippines, San Man of Botswana, and Montagnards of Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam. Worth a read.

Robert Speiden, "Foundations for Awareness, Signcutting and Tracking," 2009, some 230 pages. A SAR-oriented book with plenty of helpful specifics and photos applicable to animal tracking. The author's recapitulation of the Tom Brown, Jr. pressure release ideas seems tacked on rather than integrated with the rest of the book, but is exceptionally clear. This book reinforces the basics in a useful and direct manner, which makes it good for an occasional re-read.

Peterson and Elbroch, "Field Guide To Animal Tracks," third edition 2005, about 368 pages. This is a bible of animal tracking field guides. The volume and depth of information, the number of photographs and diagrams, the many useful tables and diagram-collection pages, and the no-nonsense approach make this a must-have foundation for the tracker library.

Tom Brown, Jr., "Case Files of The Tracker," 2003, about 190 pages. Stories, supposedly true. I will do a separate commentary on this book along with three other Tom Brown, Jr. books I read a bit later.

Tom Brown, Jr., "The Science and Art of Tracking: Nature's Path to Spiritual Discovery," 1999, about 210 pages. Notable for two things: great detail on learning the theory of pressure releases accompanied by many diagrams and photographs; and a lot of spiritual assertions. I also found a lot of useful general tracking information in this book.

I will do a separate commentary on this book along with three other Tom Brown, Jr. books I read a bit later.

Tom Brown, Jr., "Field Guide: Nature Observation and Tracking," 1983, about 250 pages. About one-third on awareness and observation technique, including stalking and camouflage; and two-thirds on tracking technique, including pressure releases. Laced with Mr. Brown's beliefs on spirit-in-nature. Filtering out the belief system I found a great deal of useful and interesting information.

I will do a separate commentary on this book along with the three other Tom Brown, Jr. books I read a bit later.

Specific suggestion?



Specific suggestion?

The best beginning book around. The observation skills are more critical to learning tracking than most people are aware of. Identifying the tracks is easy, noticing them and knowing where to look for other sign is much more difficult.

If you have a smart phone... there's an ap for that.