FIRST FIELD GUIDE TO

animal
tracks
OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

Ostrich (page 15)

Burchell’s zebra (page 41)

louis liebenberg
Contents

Introduction3 Species accounts 8

What is tracking? 3 Glossary & Photographic credits 56
Where and how to look 4 Checklist57
Wildlife in miniature 6 Further reading 57

Key to African names:

A – Afrikaans; S – Sotho;
X – Xhosa; Z – Zulu.

Broken branches, uprooted

trees and stripped tree bark
may serve as indicators of an
elephant’s presence

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Copyright © in text, 2003: Louis Liebenberg
Copyright © in photographs, 2003:
Individual photographers as credited on p. 56
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Introduction
The ability of Kalahari Bushmen
trackers to interpret and
understand the story behind
each spoor is cultivated over a
lifetime and developed to an
exceptionally high degree. Men
and women are able to identify
the footprints of an individual
person. They can identify the
antelope they have shot from
the rest of the herd, and have
the ability to track down that
specific animal. The animal’s
spoor may vary according to its
age, mass, sex and condition.
It may also have a unique way
of walking or a particular habit
that distinguishes it from other
individuals of the same species.
People today are often not
familiar with the immense
variety of animal life that
surrounds them, simply because
most animals are rarely seen.
To a ‘spoor conscious’ tracker,
however, animal tracks may
reveal the activities of a
multitude of animals.
Leopards, for example, are
very elusive and thus hardly ever
seen. They have the uncanny
ability to live near human
settlements, often on the
periphery of large cities. Finding
3
leopard tracks in unexpected
places can be exhilarating.
Even if you never see the
animal, the knowledge that it
is there is immensely gratifying.
By reconstructing animal
movements from footprints,
you may be able to visualise the
actions of that animal. In this
way a whole story may unfold –
a story of what happened when
no one was looking.
What is tracking?
The art of tracking involves each
and every sign of an animal’s
presence that can be found in
nature, including ground spoor,
vegetation spoor, scent, feeding
signs, urine, faecesG, saliva,
pellets, territorial signs, paths
and shelters, vocal and other
Fine dust on this hard, dry ground will
betray the leopard’s passing through
auditory signs, incidental signs Where and how to look
and skeletal remains. The clearest footprints are
Footprints provide the usually found in damp, slightly
most detailed information on muddy earth, in wet sand, in a
the identity, movements and thin layer of loose dust on firm
activities of animals. The spoor substrate, or in snow. Dirt roads
illustrations in this book are and paths may have a thin layer
exact studies made under ideal of very fine dust on firm ground
conditions – in other words, that can reveal the finest detail
spoor that are clearly visible of the spoor.
in mud or sand, and are not Usually, however, footprints
distorted. In reality, one will are partially obliterated,
probably never find two animals and one should walk up and
with identical footprints. down the trail to find the
One advantage of using ideal best imprints. Even if no clear
footprints is that it gives one footprints can be found, one
a preconceived image, which can collect bits of information
makes it easier to identify by studying several footprints
imperfect tracks correctly,
in conditions where the
tracks may otherwise
have been overlooked.
Preconceived images play
an important role in the
recognition of patterns
in nature. The ‘danger’
with them, however, is
that one may misread
random markings as spoor
or one animal’s spoor
for another. One must
therefore be careful not to
be prejudiced and see what
one would like to see. Civet spoor in sand