Teacher_Book - General - Draft 23 - 2015

WHEN:
IAPF game rangers must determine WHEN an intruder was in the game reserve. It’s BEST to track in the early morning
for tracks to ‘SHINE’ & cast a ‘SHADOW’ for the rangers to better see them. If tracks are found to be fresh (eg 0-1hr old),
trackers must be careful not to stumble onto the poachers as they could have weapons (as in PHOTO 6).
• Footprints: if the outer edges of a footprint eroded away, it means the intruder was there hours ago and long gone -
but it depends on the sun, wind and rain. If the spoor was in the hot sun and exposed it will erode quicker meaning the
intruder could be an hour away.
• Displaced rocks and sticks: tell a ranger when an intruder was there. The lighter the soil imprint of a displaced
object, the longer the time since the intruder was there; the darker the soil imprint, the closer the intruder is because the
soil hasn’t had time to evaporate in the sun (PHOTO 1 & 2).
• Beetle and bird tracks: over a footprint tell IAPF game rangers WHEN someone was there. A nocturnal bird with its
footprint over a human footprint means the intruder was there before dark (vice versa). Beetles move in a constant speed
and can be used to determine how many minutes or hours ahead an intruder is. (Watch the beetle video: IAPF Lead
tracker Leon sees a beetle print over an intruders foot print we’d been following, he stops everyone and demonstrates
how he uses beetle behaviours to determine the time ahead the intruders were. PHOTO 9 - Leon calculated the poachers
were 70 seconds ahead of the IAPF group, we turned off the video and ambushed them just over the ridge.)
WHERE:
IAPF Game Rangers must determine WHERE the intruder has been & WHERE they are going. This is calculated by:
• Footprint direction: dirt splattered forward & heavy weight on front toe tells a forward direction.
• Rocks/Sticks over turned in the dirt: pebbles and rocks get trampled on and jammed into the ground by animals, yet
when humans walk they sometimes trip or kick stones forward or flick/uproot twigs lying in the dirt, the kicked angle
will show you which direction the human is heading (PHOTO 2).
• Twigs/Vegetation: Black rhinos teeth cut twig branches at a perfect 45 degree angle whereas humans break & snap
leaves/twig branches off while they walk long distances, the direction of the snapped twigs will show you the pathway
WHERE they walked; humans tend to bend branches downwards & behind them as they walk past– animals don’t do
this.
• Spider Webs disturbed: when people walk through a spider’s web they will wipe it off onto the vegetation in front of
them as the walk past – animals don’t do this. WHERE they wipe the web shows where the poachers went.
Page 41