Manhunter E-Book

Ian Maxwell

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 409

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Manhunter is the ultimate guide to tracking skills in both wild and urban environments. Written by an experienced tracker, the book looks at the qualities and skills you need to track successfully, the different methods involved, the psychology of tracking, and strategies to deal with counter-tracking techniques. Covering Combat Tracking, Hunter Force, Tactical Tracking, Counter IED, Border Patrol, Police Search, Search and Rescue and Surveillance, Manhunter will help hone the tracking skills needed to find anyone on any terrain or in any weather conditions. Aimed at those involved with search and rescue teams, outdoor pursuit teachers, livestock owners and gamekeepers, and all outdoor enthusiasts, and with expert insights into famous cases of kidnap and missing persons.

Leseprobe

MANHUNTER

THE ART OF TRACKING

IAN MAXWELL

ROBERT HALE

First published in 2016 by Robert Hale,

an imprint of The Crowood Press Ltd,

Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

www.halebooks.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Ian Maxwell 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 71982 051 9

The right of Ian Maxwell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Contents

Preface

1Background and History

2The Qualities and Skills of a Tracker

3Human and Animal Senses

4Building the Skill of Environmental Awareness

5‘Mindology’

6Types of Tracking

7When and Where to Use Tracking

8Where to Look and What to Look For

9Elements of a Track – the Footprint

10Track Analysis and Gait Analysis

11Ageing

12Camouflage and Stalking

13Communication

14Team Formations

15Lost Spoor Procedure

16Starting the Follow-up

17Counter- and Anti-tracking

18Equipment

19Real-life Cases

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

Index

Preface

Writing does not come easily to me. There is always something more urgent, exciting or compelling to do. Let’s face it, I track because I like a bit of action, the outdoors, kit, nature and, yes, a challenge. It is ironic that the greatest challenge for me is to write a book. I hope that it will ignite your interest in an ancient art and, if you are already a tracker, the information here will help you to hone your skills.

I hope in this book to communicate the exhilaration I feel when I am tracking, though I fear that the English language is not sufficient to describe it.

When people asked me about ten years ago if I had written a book, tracking was becoming a forgotten art. I am grateful to many people around the world, and in particular David Scot Donelan, who kept the flame alive.

I have been teaching mantracking, wildlife tracking, counter IED, and survival skills through Shadowhawk Tracker School for over 10 years. We train people from all over the world. I have been lucky enough to work with some of the finest tactical and combat trackers on all but the coldest continents on earth. I have also travelled deep into the wilderness to track with indigenous tribespeople from Africa, Borneo, India and South America. I have spent a considerable amount of time with the US Border Patrol, and especially the Shadow Wolves, who are Native American trackers operating on the Tohono O Odam Reserve. They are also operational in Eastern Europe. A letter from them was part of the inspiration for this book. The letter read:

Ean [sic] Maxwell

It was a pleasure to meet and talk with you. I hope your time was well spent. Please take your knowledge and make good use of it. Your efforts are appreciated by all.

I am sometimes perplexed by the sheer number of individuals and organizations training trackers. It seems that there are several techniques taught by various people throughout the world. Some schools of tracking have broadly the same ethos, while other schools teach entirely different techniques. One thing is common to them all – they are all trying to find solutions for a complex discipline. Generally they seem to be divided between wildlife and mantracking; it is rare for schools to cross over these skills, and many schools teach either mantracking or wildlife tracking. This book demonstrates the importance of understanding both skills. The tracking of wildlife is an skill essential to mantrackers. It is important to distinguish between animal and human tracks. Knowledge of both greatly enhances the success of tracking operations. The techniques used by the various schools range from the Step By Step method, through to military-style tracking and the more spiritual approach which does attract a degree of debate from the non-believers, which is covered in Chapter 6.

This is a letter from The Shadowolves. ‘Ean’ (Ian) has been spelled phonetically. The author of the letter has been removed to protect his identity.

These argentinean trackers are without doubt the most sharp-eyed and cunning trackers I have had the privilege of working with.

Visual tracking techniques generally used by the military pay some attention to the senses, but these are not covered in detail here as some of these techniques present a danger to the tracker and some take too long to track the subject down. The X and Y formation, which are patterns the tracking team will form, is covered in Chapter 14. It is effective when manpower permits, and the spiritual approach does have its place when it is better understood.

It has been apparent that an alloy of techniques, which is flexible and incorporates the best ingredients from all tracking styles, will produce the most effective trackers. This book presents all these skills to make a highly effective tracking technique which you can apply under any circumstances and anywhere in the world.

The only aim of a tracker is to find the subject as soon as possible. The tracker will be driven by closing the time-distance gap, or by using cunning and guile to gather information from his surroundings to influence the outcome.

During this process, I have found from experience that tracking operations go through a number of phases, including mobilizing manpower, skill levels, resources and ability to track effectively. Few organizations are able to provide a full complement of trackers – perhaps ten or more for one shift. Because of operational budgets, logistics and the susceptibility of trackers to get ‘tracked-out’, the operation will shift in size, techniques and effectiveness.

A police dog handler is also a trained tracker.

The Shadowhawk Phase Technique uses a number of skills, and is being employed operationally around the world. These techniques have their roots in Scotland, Africa, the USA and elsewhere.

In addition to native skills that go back millennia, this book also covers the latest cutting-edge techniques, including high-tech electronic devices.

Throughout, I have used terminology that seeks to standardize terms used in military, search and rescue, wildlife and law enforcement.

In recent years people have discussed the somewhat new term of ‘mantracking’. There are other terms: ‘human tracker’, or just ‘tracker’. Whether the term is new or old, the most effective way of describing someone who tracks humans is ‘a mantracker’. The terms ‘man’ and ‘mantracker’ used throughout the book should be read as referring to both men and women.

Many techniques taught and written about can be overly complicated. Often, when the agency is called upon to track, they will deviate from a formalized technique because of operational reasons, and human behaviour. Therefore there is little to be gained by teaching techniques that will ultimately not be used. The Phase Technique is designed to be adaptable and seeks to simplify and provide operational solutions without loss of content or compromise.

The components of the Phase Technique, as described in this book, have been taught in Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Europe, USA, Canada and the Middle East. They are being used in the fight against armed poachers, in the global war against terrorism and in the gathering and interpretation of intelligence, tactical and combat tracking, wildlife tracking, search and rescue and counter-IED. They are also being used by forensic technicians to aid in the gathering of evidence. I have been called to court to testify as an expert witness, in cases where tracking was crucial to a successful outcome, and where the judge accepted the tracking evidence as the most important factor.

The reason that the technique is called ‘the Phase Technique’ is that individual trackers have varying skill levels. For example, a level one SAR Tracker may have less tracking ability than a tactical tracker, or vice versa, and although this could be addressed by ‘dirt’ time (i.e. time spent tracking in the field), the individuals will be going through a transitional phase of learning.

The term ‘phase’ also applies to operational tracking. It is very rare for a tracking team or individual to launch straight into action. There is the ramping–up process, while logistics are tackled, trackers sort out their kit and intelligence is gathered and then finally the follow-up commences. Often, a patrol or individual will be carrying out other duties and phase the tracking into their role as appropriate.

A good example is canine teams where the primary roles may be search and rescue, patrol-dog handlers, attack dogs, cadaver dogs or drug-detecting dogs. While using their dogs, they may happen across tracks, pick up on aerial spoor or be able to interpret bird dynamics. It may be that conditions are not suitable to deploy their dogs and the dogs are not able to interpret some types of spoor. In these circumstances the dog handler would switch to using his tracking skills.

I have seen this on several searches where the area was too busy with other people and pet dogs and in another situation where the surface was too hot for the dog’s feet and our canine friend was returned to his air-conditioned compartment.

Equally, a search is a very dynamic situation, and resources including helicopters, quad bikes, horses and dogs will be phased in and out of the theatre of operation. The techniques have been used simultaneously in the same follow-up, by dog teams working alongside search officers and search and rescue personnel. None of them were specialist trackers, but all of them used tracking at one stage or another.

This book will describe how canine teams and mantrackers work together to provide the most powerful search tool available. I have also included some information about animals, where there is something to be gleaned from their behaviour which is of interest to trackers.

I have trained thousands of trackers, and worked with hundreds, and putting thirty-five years of following spoor into one book is a near-impossible task. There are so many things to be learnt in the field, and to this day I could spend another lifetime teaching all that I have learnt.

One thing I have discovered is the value of simplicity. That is not because I like shortcuts, but because if you complicate things they can start to go wrong when the pressure is on.

I hope that this book will be of interest to a wide range of people, from professionals in emergency services, those involved in sports such as hunting and stalking and those who want to learn about a skill that is deeply rooted in us all.

Ian Maxwell, ShadowHawk

Chapter 1

Background and History

Many thousands of years ago Australopithecus would have been able to smell his food and then, as time went on, he would have recognized tracks in the ground made by his prey. His eyes, mounted on the front of his head, were a highly effective hunting tool.

He was different from his predecessors who were browsers, grazers and scavengers because, armed with good eyesight and weapons, he would have tracked his prey efficiently using techniques that are probably very similar to those we use today. By this point in history our ancestors would have started to read tracks. They would have been able to work out whether the tracks were made by something that could be hunted for food or by something that was a threat to them or their family. Tracking had now become the tool of both the provider and the protector.

Over thousands of years tracking has remained essentially the same, although modern-day lifestyle has impacted on the level of, and the uses for, tracking. We no longer have to track our prey down but you could argue that modern shopping behaviour is an adaptation of our ancestral hunting and gathering skills. The hunt no longer occurs where we track down and kill our prey using our primeval skills: instead we hunt for the best bargains on the shop’s shelves. I have observed classic hunting behaviour in supermarkets. Customers see a product that they want, yet they don’t pick it up. They will often observe the product, possibly even study it in detail, and then go past it and around another aisle before returning to swoop in and pick it up. This is classic circling behaviour as used by predators when they circle their prey.

With civilization and agriculture came a fiscal society. Our ancestors were able to trade and purchase food. The need to hunt was eroded by shops and now supermarkets providing our food in exchange for money. The need to defend ourselves from other tribes and animals was largely taken over by governments and so that valuable skill started to slip into history. Yet the ability and desire to track still lies dormant in us.

Broadly speaking, we fall into two distinct types of tracker. One type of tracker is the hunter, characterized by the desire to hunt things down. Similar characteristics are displayed today in endurance running and persistence hunting.

The other is the cultivator, who has inherited behavioural patterns from when man started to cultivate land and created an agricultural society. The pastoralist is a different kind of tracker, being not so driven by the hunt. Despite the term, however, such people are crucial to a tracking team. The characteristics of both types of tracker are very strong, although it would take another book to describe the features. I am sure as you read this you are wondering which one you are.

On courses I will place an assegai in the sand without students seeing me do it. I make sure that there is a clear print, and then pick the assegai up. The way in which people describe what happened is a very good indication as to what kind of tracker they are. Some students will see only the basic fact of an imprint in the sand and cannot make any deductions about what they see. Some will go to great lengths to think it through and come up with an accurate description of what happened and their deductions. They don’t express any interest in tracking down the person who placed the assegai.

A small percentage of these will make an accurate deduction; however, they go into extra detail. They will describe the fact that it has probably been placed by a hunter. They will therefore draw the conclusion that there is a potentially dangerous person in the vicinity armed with a spear. They express a strong desire to track down the assegai owner to establish if they are friend or enemy.

The first and second group tend to be the cultivators; however, the third group shows strong manhunting and tracking instinct. This group also make excellent pursuit trackers.

In many societies that I have visited there is a specialized warrior class of people, and without exception they are all trained in the art of tracking. I have found it interesting that there are specific codes of conduct to ensure that the warrior class is not corrupted, or use their powerful skills against society.

Some of the most outstanding groups of pastoralists I have met are the Samburu of Northern Kenya. They cherish their cows, which form an important part of their society. The Samburu have created a warrior class, whose job it is to protect the people, the village and the cows and to track down anyone who steals a cow from them. The warriors go through a rigorous training programme, not unlike a tactical tracker. They are taught to track, what to do in the event of meeting the enemy, stalking, weapons, survival and close-quarter combat. I once met a Samburu warrior. Through the dust I could see a pole with a flag attached, waving in the strong, dry wind. As he approached I was warned that he was a very tough and aggressive warrior and that if he didn’t like the look of me he was likely to want a fight. I was told that a week ago, he had eaten a whole goat in one sitting, and that he was a giant! As he approached, I was somewhat aware of his inquisitive mind, and his display of weaponry in the ready-to-use position left no doubt that he wanted a fight.

When we met, I chose not to shake his hand and told him that I was a warrior from a country a long way off and was looking for him. He was somewhat taken aback by the fact that he had effectively become the quarry. We instantly struck up a bond and quickly got down to talking about knives, spears, guns and fighting. The day passed and we spoke through the night, at which time he told me he had been tracking me, and already knew who I was from my tracks in the dust.

When he learnt that I had a son, he invited him to join the Samburu and undergo warrior training, which would make him very proud. If ever I was in the area, I put a message out and a couple of days later he would wander into camp.

In Europe there are records of professional trackers from ad 500 onwards. The continental Germanic tribal leaders, and later their kings, made references to trackers in the laws they issued. Under Germanic law trackers were tasked with finding poached wildlife, stolen livestock and people. There is reference to the amount a tracker was paid: three solidi for a horse and two solidi for a cow (solidi was a form of coinage).

The word spoor, originally Dutch, translates to sign, tracks and trail, but this is only part of the complete term. In Dutch, tracking is translated as spoorenkunde, which is divided into three different levels: spoorzoeken, spoorlezen and spoorvolgen.

Spoorzoeken translates as finding and identifying tracks and sign. Spoorlezen translates to reading and interpreting sign and tracks. Spoorvolgen translates to the follow-up, where the tracker follows the track and sign.

Some of the earliest documented tracking comes from Rogers’ Rangers, named for Maj. Robert Rogers, who used a blend of skills from Native American tactics and his own, somewhat innovative combat skills. The 28 ‘Rules of Ranging’ are a series of rules and guidelines originally created by Rogers in 1757, during the French and Indian War (1754–63). They were intended to serve as a manual on guerrilla warfare for Rogers’ Ranger company, a 600-strong contingent whose members were personally selected by Rogers. His rangers undertook a harsh training programme, which gave them the tools to live off the land and carry out reconnaissance duties but, interestingly, his rangers spent many hours learning tracking skills, which feature in the 28 rules of ranging. These rules came to be tested on many occasions.

US Ranger commander Lt.-Col. William Darby read the rules to the 1st Ranger Battalion prior to action during World War II, and a modified version of the rules is still followed by the 75th Ranger Regiment to this day. They are considered the model for all Ranger activities.

The Plan of Discipline, as extracted from Major Rogers’ journal and intended for his Rogers’ Rangers in 1759, includes the following advice:

… If you march over marshes or soft ground, change your position, and march abreast of each other to prevent the enemy from tracking you (as they would do if you marched in a single file) till you get over such ground, and then resume your former order, and march till it is quite dark before you encamp, which do, if possible, on a piece of ground which may afford your sentries the advantage of seeing or hearing the enemy some considerable distance, keeping one half of your whole party awake alternately through the night.

… Some time before you come to the place you would reconnoitre, look for footprints, make a stand, and send one or two men in whom you can confide, to look out the best ground for making your observations. …

It is very interesting that Rogers formalized his rules of ranging, because this was probably the first and the last time that tracking was written about until the Boer Wars. Some cultures don’t have a name for tracking, or a translation from English. Many of the societies that I have worked within simply don’t have a term for the process. As a child growing up in the bush, the tribes that were around, the Bemba, Ngoni, Matabele and Mashona used tracking in everyday life, but it was the Europeans that gave it such a title.

History books tell us that tracking was used extensively in the Wild West, and the many Indian wars that raged as Native Americans resisted the settlement of Westerners. The iconic symbols of Geronimo and Cochise of the Apache tribes were glamorized by TV and movies. It is clear that Geronimo was an expert tracker and he used his tracking and stalking skills to slow down the US Cavalry. There are stories of Geronimo sneaking into US camps and removing gun parts, a clever trick indeed. Had he removed complete guns the Cavalry would have detected something was going on, and would have prepared for Geronimo’s night-time forays. Instead they would not have suspected anything was missing. This is a tactic I use to this day, but it falls under another chapter.

During the Indian Wars a young American settler, Frederick Burnham, was growing up. He witnessed the killing of settlers by the Sioux and he became a scout and tracker by the age of fourteen. He was soon to be employed by the US Cavalry and picked up lots of skills from Native American trackers during his experience scouting and tracking in the Chiricahua Apache and Cheyenne Wars. In 1893 Frederick Burnham appeared in Africa, employed as a soldier of fortune to scout for the Shangani Patrol in Matabeleland. It was during his experience on this patrol that he claims to have tracked by touch at night to retrieve two of his colleagues from the bush. The accounts of his tracking, stalking and scouting make for interesting reading, but it is one of the earliest chronicles of tracking.

In 1876, Robert Baden-Powell had joined the British army, and was soon to be posted to Africa. He enhanced and honed his military scouting skills among the Zulu in the early 1880s in the Natal province of South Africa.

Baden-Powell’s skills had impressed his superiors and he returned to Africa in 1896, and served in the Second Matabele War, in the expedition to relieve British South Africa Company personnel under siege in Bulawayo. This was a formative experience for him, not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory in the Matopos Hills, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas took hold here. It was during this campaign that he first met and befriended Frederick Burnham, who introduced Baden-Powell to the American Old West and to tracking.

Both men were to spend their time fighting the Boers in South Africa. The Boers had a tactical advantage. They employed guerrilla warfare and used their skills as hunters. They were well camouflaged and concentrated on making the first shot count, based on the fact that, if you didn’t hit the animal you were hunting with the first shot it would bolt. They also knew the land and environment.

To combat the Boer Commandos, Lord Lovat, from the North-east of Scotland, was given money to raise a private army. He recruited gamekeepers and ghillies who knew how to track and stalk animals and also had considerable expertise in apprehending poachers. They wore tweed, which to this day is still one of the best fabrics available for camouflage, and could stay out for days on end, living off the land. They were perfect scouts, and were a match for the Boers.

This was a turning point for tracking. The Lovats had adapted their uniforms and were wearing one in dark green, now known as Lovat green. Baden Powell had started to formalize his accounts of tracking and chronicled it in his books, including tracking games.

Although others were using tracking skills, the collaboration between Burnham and Baden-Powell, in their theatre of operation, meant that many features of tracking became formalized. Baden-Powell established the Scout movement and the little-known Legion of Frontiersman, which was a small paramilitary cadre of men, with tracking and survival skills, who could be deployed at short notice to areas of the Commonwealth.

It was evident that small élite tracking units were highly efficient and they were deployed in the many wars that followed.

As time went on, winds of change were sweeping across the colonies and South-east Asia. Countries were involved in freedom struggles. Some were involved with Soviet and Communist backers. These wars were fought in hostile landscapes, where the locals knew the terrain, and like the Boers were able to conduct guerrilla tactics. In 1948 in the jungles of Malaya, the deployment of large numbers of troops was not working, and so the SAS were deployed. The SAS comprised a small group of hand-picked men, capable of great stealth; these men worked closely and successfully with native Iban trackers. Soon the tide of the war began to turn against the insurgents.

Between 1952 and 1962 in Kenya, gangs of Mau Mau were attacking White settlers. The colonial Kenyans hit back, but the Mau Mau would simply fade into the jungle once they had struck. As in Malaya, local trackers were used, but for the first time, suspicions were being raised about the accuracy and loyalty of the native Kikuyu trackers.

Back in the jungles of South-east Asia, in 1963 war started in Indonesia. It was here that the British adopted tactics similar to those of the Boer Commandos and Lovat Scouts. Training that focused on hunting skills was introduced. Skills such as stalking, endurance, tracking and local knowledge were drummed into the troops.

However, the tracking carried out in the jungles of Malaya was still done mostly by natives. For some reason, the British did not fully embrace tracking. This may have been through lack of time to maintain the skill-set, or lack of confidence.

It was not until the Zimbabwean freedom struggle in 1970 that mantracking was to make a big comeback. Veteran Rhodesian SAS soldiers who had been in Malaya and Kenya were approached by Allan Savoury. Savoury was an excellent game ranger, who used tracking techniques to hunt elephants and run down poachers. His timing was good, because he had the ear of senior officers, who not only knew the benefit of tracking, but also knew the disadvantages of using local trackers. During the Zimbabwean freedom struggle, local trackers had in fact led troops into landmines.

In some areas of Botswana South Africa Bushmen were used to track but because of cultural variations it was difficult to work with them. There are stories of a follow-up using Bushmen, when midway along the spoor, the trackers would lie down, with no indication of when they would wake again. The reason for this is difficult to understand; it could be that they were tired, hungry or under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.

Savoury, who was an expert tracker and able to survive in the bush, was given permission to raise and train his own unit known as the Tracker Combat Unit, composed of game rangers, hunters and ex-soldiers. Savoury caused concern when he said he loved the bush so much, if he had been born black, he would have joined the freedom fighters. Yet again a small, élite unit was formed consisting of yesteryear trackers. The Tracker Combat Unit underwent a metamorphosis, but they continued to get results from their tracking skills.

In Australia there is a wealth of experienced Aboriginal trackers. They have lots of stories of success, including the hunt for Ned Kelly. In the north of Australia there is a unit called Norforce. The regiment’s lineage goes back to 2/1 North Australia Observer Unit (also known as the ‘Nackaroos’), which was formed in 1942 as part of the defence of northern Australia from the Japanese during the Second World War, performing reconnaissance, scouting and coastal surveillance tasks across the Kimberley and the Northern Territory. They are reputed trackers of considerable reputation, of whom some 80 per cent are Aboriginal.

There are many other excellent tracking and reconnaissance units throughout the world, including the Ladakh Scouts of India. However, military tracking seemed to have reached an evolutionary stasis until quite recently.

During the 1970s the US Border Patrol were beginning to give greater priority to tracking. They were already using tracking to apprehend people crossing from Mexico into the USA. Two US Border Patrol agents, Jack Kearney and Ab Taylor, published books which gave blueprints for learning how to track. They had been called on several occasions to search for missing people and, as a result, started teaching search and rescue organizations. They were teaching the step-by-step method, which is dealt with in Chapter 6.

In the years that followed, the USA bolstered its Achilles’ heel with Mexico by creating a structured force of trackers. Usually, there was the lineman, who was the first line of defence. He was backed up by Borstar (US Border Search and Rescue) and Bortac (US Border Tactical Unit). All of these units could call upon specialist trackers who used a range of assets from quad bikes, horses, elevated surveillance through to aerial surveillance. There was also an organization called the Shadow Wolves, founded in 1972 as an initiative undertaken by the US to track drug smugglers on Native American lands the American South-west. The Shadow Wolves comprise an Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactical patrol unit based on the Native American Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona. Shadow Wolf officers are known for their ability to track aliens and drug smugglers as they attempt to smuggle their illegal commodities across the border. The name refers to the way the unit hunts like a wolf pack. The unit boasts an esteemed history of tracking passed down from generation to generation. Despite having access to high-tech equipment, the unit relies mainly on traditional methods of tracking. Officers may spend hours or days tracking in the field following spoor until arrests and seizures are made.

The Shadow Wolves consist of personnel from tribes such as the Apache, Sioux, Navajo, Lakota, Kickapoo and Chicasaw as well as the Pima and Tohono O’odham. They learnt from their elders that it is possible to ‘hear’ things that are silent and to ‘see’ things that are invisible on a trail. I was lucky enough to track with them and bring some of those skills into the Phase Technique, which is described later in this book.

In addition to the specialized tracking organizations, there were several organizations teaching search and rescue tracking and wildlife tracking alike, but it was not until 1998, when David Scott-Donelan wrote his fine book Tactical Tracking Operations, that we saw the emergence of tactical tracking spreading to law enforcement and the military alike.

There was little or no convergence between search and rescue (SAR), military and wildlife tracking until recently. I have always maintained that it is best to take someone who is a wildlife tracker, who is used to living in the outdoors, and teach them to mantrack. However, this is easier said than done. Many budding mantrackers want a quick fix to track humans, and are not really interested in tracking animals. However, perhaps because of the war in Afghanistan and a better appreciation of military methods, I have found a re-emergence of the desire to track animals, merged with mantracking. This has the advantage that the tracker can distinguish between animal tracks and human tracks. Skilled IED operators will go to great lengths to conceal their footprints and use livestock, including goat herds, in an attempt to obliterate human tracks. A good tracker will be able to recognize human tracks amongst animal tracks. While there will always be the use for a specialist tracking hunter force there is a present trend towards counter-IED tracking. This combines the very latest in technology, linked with the ancient art of tracking.

Who knows what will happen in the future. At the time of writing, the USA is developing robot soldiers and they may one day be the quarry, or able to recognize spoor, but they will never be able to out-compete the cunning and motivated human tracker.

CHAPTER 2

The Qualities and Skills of a Tracker

COUP D’OEIL: POWER OF THE GLANCE

I once asked a Bushman, ‘What makes a good tracker?’ He replied, ‘Hunger.’ I took him to mean two things. Hunger for food will sharpen the senses, and hunger for knowledge will improve your tracking data-base and chances of survival.

The tracker needs to have good level of fieldcraft and be able to survive and operate in environmentally hostile regions on his or her own. Fieldcraft comprises the skills and techniques involved in living and travelling in the field, especially while remaining undetected. These skills and techniques include acquisition of drinkable water and food, application of camouflage and navigation. Other skills include using features to conceal ground movement and obstacle crossing. Techniques for lie-up positions, observation, counter-surveillance, including survival, evasion and escape techniques, are also key skills.

Additionally, the tracker will require stamina and a skill-set that will aid in the search for dangerous people and missing persons.

The tracker needs to be a detective. He has to work from the facts alone, but if he is to be successful, he will also need to use his intuition to anticipate the movements of the quarry.

In the military terms a good general is said to have ‘coup d’oeil’. In French this means ‘power of the glance’, and it is the ability to immediately make sense of the battlefield. While not every tracker will achieve this, it will enhance performance.

All my hunter force trackers have gone through a rigorous training regime. Not only are they expected to track, but to be self-sufficient, being able to think for themselves in stressful conditions in the field. They are expected to be good team members, but free-thinkers at the same time. I have found that if their free spirit is inhibited, their ability to apply themselves to a difficult quarry is hampered. Most of them are individualists to varying degrees, but at the same time they have the ability to fall in with others, and be members of a highly disciplined group.

They need to be able to know about all manner of equipment, and be able to draw upon skills like natural navigation, which is where they can use nature and natural features to guide them, for example tree growth being more abundant on the south side in the northern hemisphere and on the north side in the southern hemisphere, or buffeted growth showing the direction of the dominant wind. Natural navigation is a vast subject – however, being able to get an idea of direction by the sun is the most useful of all. To do that, they have to be able to observe well, and grasp every piece of information in detail, without taking notes. It may be minutes or years before they will need to recall that information.

I find if I take mini mental snapshots of information, including landscapes, for a maximum of three seconds I am able to remember most things in detail. I have tracked all over the world, and there are very few places where I cannot remember the tracks in minute detail. Not only that, but I can remember the noises and some of the associated smells.

I often get called to talk about tracking to the business community because they are curious to see if they could adapt parts of the philosophy of tracking to give them a competitive edge. Companies are keen to increase their performance by applying something which none of their competitors have tried, tracking ‘tricks of the trade’. There are behavioural patterns, that as a tracker, I will always recognize in animals and humans.

The first one, I am personally guilty of. I pointed out to them that I had circled them at least twice, once when they were entering the venue and then after they were seated. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, in which they realized their vulnerability. It is a behavioural pattern that the hunter will use and the prey will recognize. The circling behaviour is used to weigh up the prey, to get a feel for it, and the landscape. Where is the best place to launch an attack? Where is the best cover? What direction is the wind and where will they flee to? Are there any elements of the environment that can be used as a vantage point? Very few people will detect this behaviour consciously. However, I think most people will detect it subconsciously. The circle is best portrayed in the African bush, where the lion will circle buffalo or wildebeest before the rush to separate the young or injured from the herd.

So the question is, do you have to be a hunter to track? The answer is no, because we know that all complex animals use some form of detection for food, mating or feuding.

Like all tools, its efficiency is dependent on the method of use and the skill level of the user. The qualities and skills of a tracker can mean the difference between life and death – literally, your own life or, in search and rescue (SAR), the life of someone else.

The key is to remain the hunter and not become the hunted. They say that in nature the game is only predator and prey. The mantracker has to have the ability to remain the predator.

Seventy to eighty thousand years ago Palaeolithic man was a scavenger, relying on other animals to do the stalking and pursuit. Once the prey had been killed, man would move in to take his share of the food. Only after these scavengers discovered the spear were they able to develop skills to hunt bigger prey. Within our genetic makeup, this hunting gene still exists.

Later, during the Neolithic period, settlement and agriculture was coming into play and hunters declined in numbers and became localized to arid areas and jungles. This is still manifested today by the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who by no choice of their own ended up in the deserts of the Kalahari. Another good example of modern-day jungle settlement is the Iban tribe of Borneo. Both these groups are natural trackers and hunters, and throughout history have provided trackers for the military during times of conflict.

As time passed, more people became pastoral and agricultural, and our skills as trackers and hunters declined. The flame almost burnt out, but some of the skills still remain in certain people. Some are clearly still hunters and others have a pastoral style to their tracking. I have found that the division is very clear. The hunter type of tracker enjoys the chase, and once the chase has come to an end, will have a burning desire to go on the chase again. This type of person is generally the mantracker.

As it goes, the more successful cultures are those that took to growing crops on fertile land and establishing infrastructure, while those that continue hunter-gatherer lifestyles have a less developed infrastructure and occupy less desirable regions. Pastoral trackers are still good at what they do, and tend to be good at tracking and bringing in the livestock. A prime example of this is the Maasai tribe in Africa. Goats and cows are currency to them and they make excellent trackers. However the tribes have warriors within who, on the whole, are not overly interested in the welfare of the livestock and have developed their tracking skills specific to mantracking so that they can pursue people who steal their livestock. If someone steals their livestock the warriors will use mantracking to reclaim their cattle and it is likely that an armed skirmish will ensue.

Despite popular belief a manhunter doesn’t have to be a Native American, Australian Aboriginal or Bushman of the Kalahari. There is a tracking instinct deep within every man, women and child. and we need to examine how those skills can be used in the modern age.

The common perception is that tracking is mainly a visual skill, and that good trackers have eagle eyes. Military trackers are referred to as VTs, or visual trackers. A VT will have a keen eye for visual signs, but without additional skills a VT is only slightly better than an untrained tracker in that he might be more clue aware. A good tracker has a multitude of skills and qualities. Not all trackers will be the best at all roles. Within my teams I have people who are excellent at bird dynamics but not so good at ground spoor. It is worth bearing in mind that, as a tracker gets older, his vision may weaken, but this is often compensated for by experience.

Key tracker skills include an inquisitive mind, being able to interpret spoor and the ability to anticipate the mind and movements of the target. Empathy is the greatest skill of all and ego the greatest enemy.

It would be an ideal world if only the ‘good guys’ could track, but in reality the ‘bad guys’ make good trackers too, and outwitting them is a cat and mouse game. In fact I have my suspicions that both the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ sometimes enjoy this game of wits, albeit sometimes the outcomes are unpleasant. The cunning and guile of a tracker is always being matched, whether they are the pursued or the pursuer.

Tactical decision-making, knowing how to set a trap and when to strike is like a game of human chess.

I have often tracked on patrol, accompanied by local forces. On one occasion, while training military police in the jungles of South America, we were penetrating deep into the jungle to track and intercept armed poachers who had control of the area. The rangers had been unable to make arrests and the poachers were armed with guns and had the benefit of dense jungle to protect them. The poachers’ senses were tuned into the slightest change and they were able to read the silent messages of the jungle. They were masters of moving silently and were well camouflaged and they would disappear into the jungle leaving little behind them other than a hot fire. They were aware that once they disappeared into the jungle they would have reversed the odds in their favour and that pursuit would not be safe. Booby traps, coded messages cut into a tree or a pile of stones and the advantage of silence meant that they had become the hunter and we the hunted, which was an unpleasant feeling.

On every patrol we were one step behind them, finding active poaching camps but no one in them. It then became clear that, in the village drinking dens, word had got round that a ‘gringo’ tracker was in town, and was patrolling into the jungle. This made the poachers hypersensitive.

I left for the jungle a day early, giving the impression that I had quit the area, and with two scouts set up in the jungle, moving closer to the camp hour by hour. After four days, we were based only a hundred metres from the poachers’ camp and knew exactly where their trails, escape routes and booby traps were.

A briefing was given and a well-armed patrol entered the jungle to intercept the poachers. We could tell that they had entered the jungle from a river two kilometres away, because we could see holes in the dense growth on the riverbank. On investigating several holes, we saw that one had fresh tracks in the mud. The bird behaviour changed and we could see that the animals had become jumpy.

Two kilometres in dense jungle is a long way, but during the day it was as though the poachers were playing a boom box through the jungle. We could smell the clean smell of detergent and could hear the sharp ‘ching’ of machetes as they cut through the undergrowth.

As though prompted, the poachers calmly gathered their belongings and again disappeared into the jungle, shortly before the patrol arrived in camp.

The poachers were under the illusion that again, they had turned the tables on us, but within half an hour we had tracked down all six of them. As the patrol had closed in on the camp, and the poachers moved out, we tracked the poachers’ exit from their escape route and followed them closely. They were stunned by what had happened, and despite their predicament there was mutual respect. Without the ability to second guess their movements and understand their motivation the operation would not have succeeded.

This jungle tracking operation included all the skills and qualities described in this book that a tracker needs. These are what we will go on to discuss next.

PHYSICALITY AND MENTALITY

Mentality

A common misconception that men make better trackers than women is fuelled by the desire of modern men to be the providers and protectors, the alpha males.

A vast amount of ethnographic and archaeological evidence demonstrates that the sexual division of labour where men hunt and women forage was uncommon among hunter-gatherers. Most of the gathering was done by women, but they also hunted small game, while the men hunted the large and more dangerous game. In other studies where women hunted, it was found that 85 per cent of women hunted the same quarry as men and had a 31 per cent success rate as opposed to 17 per cent for men.

I have found that women make excellent trackers. They have an eye for detail, and their senses are very receptive. However, I have found that they generally need to get results quickly. If the tracks are not easy to follow, and hours pass by, they have difficulty staying in the tracker’s mindset. Men, on the other hand, also make excellent trackers, but seem to have a greater stamina for remaining in the mindset for longer, especially during times when tracking results are poor.

All trackers must prepare physically and mentally for the follow-up. They must expect the best of themselves, and think positively; in turn this will stimulate chemicals in the brain that induce positivity. Positive thinkers literally have a different chemistry from negative thinkers.

However, before a positive mental state can be achieved, negative thoughts need to be acknowledged and worked through. In other words, to expect the best, you will also have considered how to deal with the worst.

So the tracker must ask, ‘What is the worst-case scenario?’, consider the negative scenarios and prepare emotionally for every one of those eventualities, decide how they could be dealt with, then set them aside. Once this has been done there are no longer any negative thoughts left. The focus is then 100 per cent on a positive scenario, with an expectation of a successful outcome.

On numerous courses I have had students who were afraid of the dark, of insects and a whole range of other factors which would affect their ability to track. For example, on one course we had a forensic scientist who was afraid of ants.

Fears should be tackled early, otherwise it is too easy for coils of rope to become snakes, and fear takes over. In the darkness we lose our ability to see in colour and we see in shades of grey through the peripherals of the eyes. This is when most people allow fears to creep in to their mind.

It is not advisable to have a tracker who is afraid of the dark, or who has any fears that will impact on the follow-up.

It is important to rationalize any fear. Instead of ‘Oh no, it’s dark’, try changing it to ‘Oh yes, it’s dark’. You’ll find that by simply replacing the word ‘no’ with ‘yes’ will have a positive outcome.

While being positive is important, it is also important that the tracker does not have a strong ego, as this will ultimately reflect on ever-changing conditions. The ego is the tracker’s worst enemy because with the ego come strong opinions and self-importance. Considering that empathy for our quarry and the ability to get into their mind is one of the most important skills, it is not surprising that this does not work well with ego. Often, during the learning phases of tracking, ego creeps in, and with that comes pride. When things don’t work out for that person, and they are in the ‘red zone’ (see below), it is very difficult for them to accept their vulnerabilities and the fact that they may be on the wrong track. In these circumstances, they tend to get frustrated with themselves and sometimes they can get very angry.