Tracking As An Art and Science
It has been suggested that the art of tracking may have been the first implementation of science (Liebenberg, 1990; Liebenberg, 2006; Carruthers, 2002; Carruthers, 2006; Pickering and Bunn, 2007), practiced by hunter-gatherers since the evolution of modern humans.
Apart from knowledge based on direct observations of animals, trackers gain a detailed understanding of animal behavior through the interpretation of tracks and signs. In this way much information can be obtained that would otherwise remain unknown, especially on the behavior of rare or nocturnal animals that are not often seen.
Tracks and signs offer information on undisturbed, natural behavior, while direct observations often influence the animal by the mere presence of the observer. Tracking is therefore a non-invasive method of information gathering, in which potential stress caused to animals can be minimized.
Some of the most important applications of tracking are in hunting and trapping, as well as controlling poaching, ecotourism, environmental education, police investigation, search and rescue, and in scientific research.
The modern science of animal tracking is widely practiced in the fields of wildlife biology, zoology, mammalogy, conservation, and wildlife management. Tracking enables the detection of rare, endangered, and elusive species. The science of tracking is utilized in the study of forest carnivores like the Canada Lynx, (Felis lynx), and the Wolverine, (Gulo gulo). Various measurements of tracks, and/or an animal's paws, and subsequent analyses of the datum, can also reveal important information about animals' physiology and their behavior. For example, measurements of Lynx paws demonstrate their support capacity (on snow) to be double that of bobcat (Parker et al., 1983) ( see U.S.D.A, Forest Service, GTR RM-254, pg. 93)
Read more about this topic: Tracking (hunting)
Famous quotes containing the words tracking, art and/or science:
“Such is the art of writing as Dreiser understands it and practices it—an endless piling up of minutiae, an almost ferocious tracking down of ions, electrons and molecules, an unshakable determination to tell it all. One is amazed by the mole-like diligence of the man, and no less by his exasperating disregard for the ease of his readers.”
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