Professional Trackers

Tracking has been with us since early hominids learned to read signs to get preferred prey within range of weapons or trap-snares. Since early weapons were more likely to wound prey than kill it outright, tracking would have been essential in following wounded or poisoned prey when the animal itself was out of sight. Knowledge was passed along through training and oral tradition.

As bands of humans proliferated, many societies encouraged raiding more successful neighbors to improve local nutrition. The use of tracking in reconnaissance prior to tribal raiding or pursuing successful raiders added new dimensions to the skill. Human prey could be aware of the sign they left behind, allowing them to disguise or conceal their sign; the size of the raiding/pursuing force would allow the development of cooperative tracking techniques rather than the lone hunter relying only on his own skill.

Since raiding existed among many cultures worldwide, modern societies could often find many men for whom tracking was an essential skill, which literally made the difference between living and dying by an enemy’s spear. Colonial-era armies made use of these “native trackers” as scouts and trainers to augment the skills of ranchers and hunters among the ranks.

Animal tracking as a skill persisted among hunters and ranchers until modern times, and starvation helped to select the best of them (starvation as natural selection). The fact that the United States and Canada developed (e.g. kept a frontier) later than Europe allowed them to maintain a domestic source of trackers into modern times. The most famous of these American scouts were the Apache Scouts who helped the US Army to capture the rebelling Chiricahua Apache band. This unit was dissolved in 1920. Internationally, examples of these “native trackers” still exist today, although reduction of habitat and the allure of easier lives have forced them into isolated pockets.

In between the World Wars, the British Army and the US Marines were involved in a series of small wars across the globe. Post-WW2, British Special Forces (SAS) learned tracking from the Iban tribesman of (Borneo) Indonesia. These skills contributed to the deadliness of these troops during the Malayan Emergency including the conflict with Indonesia, Kenya, and Yemen.

Rhodesian SAS/Portuguese in Africa use a mix of native trackers and their own skills (due to variable reliability of native trackers); U.S. Army Special Forces (USSF) in Vietnam and early Border Patrol also used native talent. The Border Patrol used resources from local ranchers and trappers. Later most BP agents became static leaving tracking to a very small percentage of its officers like Jack Kearney and  Ab Taylor. Today, a dying art has recently gone through a re-birth and has been put into use by the Military, Law Enforcement, and Search and Rescue.

Anything that moves will leave some type of sign that indicates its journey across terrain. Animals, people and machines all leave signs. A trained and highly skilled tracker can detect and follow that sign while untrained persons cannot see anything at all. If it moves over the ground,  it must leave sign and a tracker can identify and follow that sign.

Anything that moves will leave some type of sign that indicates its journey across terrain. Animals, people and machines all leave signs. A trained and highly skilled tracker can detect and follow that sign while untrained persons cannot see anything at all. If it moves over the ground,  it must leave sign and a tracker can identify and follow that sign.

Written by Fernando Moreira
Copyright © 2010 By Professional Tracking Services

• Tracking team formations and how to adjust the formations for different terrain.
• Common Booby trap recognition.
• Combat Tracking Techniques.
• Immediate action drills using non- lethal training ammunition (NLTA)
• Operations Planning and command & control during the track
• Tactical team development and training activities
• Tactical Team Patrol operations
• Point man techniques
• Interpreting top and ground sign when obvious footprints are not found.
• Lost track procedure and sign cutting techniques.
• How to recognize common deception tactics determining the age of sign/ spoor
• Track pursuit drills
• Reading blood trails
• Making proper use of all senses for maximum awareness in back country
• Students will expect to use these techniques through out the course. Including night operations.
• Lost communications protocol

• Clothing (Camouflage)
• Camel- Back water hydration
• MREs Or Trail mix Food
• Good pair of hiking boots
• Rain gear
• Compass / GPS
• Tactical weapons and tactical lights

Pack extra clothing, sleeping bags etc. Keep it Light as possible, you will be required to carry, and train with it for 5 days.

$300

• Team tactics used for sign cutting
• Management of sign cutting resources
• Sign cutting techniques for day tracking
• Sign cutting techniques for night tracking
• Lost track drill

• Demonstrate the use of tracking tools and their application
• Identify different types of track sign
• The tracking stick as the basic tool of the tracker. How to set it up and how to use it.
• Documentation, Forms, Diagrams and Photographs: How they are prepared and used by the tracker.
• The Tracking Team, The basic tracking team, team formation, duties of the team members.
• Aging sign
• Lost tracks drill
• Communicating Prints
• Slope and Ground cover
• Sun Angle
• Deductive skills And Precision Releases
• Basic skills in sign cutting

• Observe and obey all crime scene protocols
• Demonstrate the proper techniques for approach and entry into the crime scene
• Identify and discriminate different types of track sign at the scene.
• Preserve the crime scene indentifies and protects evidence
• Control and direct a tracking team at crime scene
• Complete a detailed report of the track team actions and observations
• Crime Scene preservation
• Scene surveys and searches

• Photography
• Sketches and diagrams
• Types of evidence
• Prevent contamination
• Protect the Scene and evidence
• Establish one perimeter or inner/outer perimeters
• Assign personnel to maintain perimeters
• Maintain a crime scene log
• Cover impressions
• Temporary walls
• Scene surveys
• Selecting a search pattern
• Not taking
• Sketches and diagrams
• Crime scene reconstruction

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