Visual Tracking / Signcutting / “Mantracking”

1. What they did

These are short training notes, not a research paper. Nancy Lyon of N.E. K-9 SAR (a search and rescue dog group) wrote them up from a tracking workshop taught by Bob Dubay and Ben Batchelder of the US Border Patrol, Swanton Sector. In three pages they set out what visual tracking (also called signcutting or “mantracking”) can do in a search for a missing person, what to look for, how to measure and follow footprints with a tracking stick, and how a small tracking team can work.

2. What they found

As workshop notes, they give teaching points rather than findings.

What tracking offers a search

• Clues to direction, time and the type of shoe.
• A way to aim the search: a track can turn the circle drawn around the PLS (the notes do not spell this out) into a pie slice spreading out in the direction of the sign.

Five characteristics of sign

• Flattening: rocks, twigs and dirt levelled by the weight of the foot.
• Regularity: lines, circles or other geometric shapes pressed into the ground by a shoe or foot.
• Colour change: in soil, plants, twigs or rocks, for example a snapped twig, a turned leaf or scuffed soil.
• Disturbance: stones, twigs and plants knocked out of place.
• Transfer: material carried and dropped by the sole of the shoe.

Seeing and following tracks

• A low sun throws more shadow and makes tracks easier to see; at night, a flashlight held close to the ground helps.
• Most people move along the path of least resistance, and tend to aim toward something, so look for what might draw them.
• Draw the footprint in detail and measure heel to toe length, the width across the ball of the foot, and the length and width of the heel, so the print can be described by radio to searchers ahead.

The tracking stick

• The stick records the step interval (from the back of the front heel to the toe of the back foot), the length of the foot (marked with two elastic bands) and the stride (from the tip of the stick to the second band).
• To find the next print, hold the stick at the second band over the back edge of the last heel print and swing it in an arc, looking for the next heel near the tip. Stride changes with terrain, but the next print should be near the arc.

Marking and teamwork

• Mark tracks and signs with crepe (toilet) paper tied to small twigs pushed into the ground at the heel; a line of marked tracks can show the direction when the sign fades.
• Grass and low shrubs show passage and direction especially in early morning, when the dew has been disturbed.
• A team can be a signcutter with two flankers, who work slightly behind and take care not to destroy sign when the signcutter is struggling to find the track.
• Tracks may be evidence, so searchers should take care not to destroy them as they pass.

3. What they concluded

The notes end with how tracking fits into a search: once the track and direction are found, the search can be sent ahead with planes or dogs to locate the missing person.

4. How tracking was or was not used

The whole document is about tracking people: identifying signs of passage, measuring footprints, following a trail print by print with a tracking stick, marking sign, and working as a team of a signcutter and flankers.

6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

• The tracking stick, with two elastic bands marking foot length and stride.
• Crepe paper markers on twigs to record a line of tracks.
• A flashlight held close to the ground for tracking at night.