April 2025 News, Stories, and Events from Original Wisdom
Our new book is out! TRACKING ANIMALS – A GUIDE TO TRAILING WILDLIFE, by Lee Gutteridge and Kersey Lawrence and published by Jacana Media. Filled with stories from Lee and Kersey, and other CyberTracker Evaluators. Available in print and as an eBook, and ordering info is inside. Also, look in the ONLINE EVENTS section of the Jan 2025 newsletter for links to a monthly article we write for the Hoedspruit Explorer, for some instruction and stories from the book to help whet your tracking appetite.
March 2025 News, Stories, and Events from Original Wisdom
We found the Montana mountain lion’s tracks on a fresh skiff of newly fallen snow, crossing the road and ducking under a barbed wire fence along a trail that the deer regularly used. Her tracks were crisp, and our guide asked us if we’d like to abandon our original plan to look for a variety of tracks and signs, or would we like to follow her…
What would you do? To find out what our answer was, read on in the Snow Tracking section below…
January 2025 News, Stories, and Events from Original Wisdom
Four researchers and trainers working across continents, all with a passion for trackers and tracking.
Kersey is from the USA, Jiska is from the Netherlands, and both of them currently live in South Africa. Along with Matt Nelson (USA) and Sandy Reed (USA), the Soul of Tracking team are collaborating in a long-term international Tracking Research project through the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Read more about it here.
December 2024 Year in Review from Original Wisdom
Team Original Wisdom, Kersey Lawrence, Lee Gutteridge, Sandy and Cal Reed, Shane Hawkins, Hillary Lisowski, Samantha Snodgrass, Ozzy Banda, would all like to wish you happy holidays and a healthy and prosperous new year. As we close another year, we want to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported and joined us in our mission. Here’s to all the joys of the holiday season and to a New Year filled with hope, progress, and lots of Tracking!
Song and music by John Edmund, Story in the Sand.
November 2024 News, Stories, and Events from Original Wisdom
René Nauta from Holland tracks fallow deer in tough conditions in West Sussex, England. He earned his Trailing Specialist from CyberTracker Conservation, earning him the title of Senior Tracker when combined with his already achieved Track & Sign ID Specialist.
There are a number of new Specialists this month, in North America, Europe, and Africa. We’ll tell you a bit about the ones that Original Wisdom was directly involved with in this newsletter. The community of skilled Trackers is gathering momentum!
October 2024 News, Stories, and Events from Original Wisdom
Some nipped twigs taken from inside the large dung balls of an endangered black rhinoceros. We are so lucky to see these on their infrequent trails and I keep them in my pocket as “awareness reminders” of these secretive and dangerous beings.
Photo credit: Kersey Lawrence
Featured Event from South Africa:
On the Trail of Elephants: A story with Finger Lakes Community College participants from our upcoming book.
By Kersey Lawrence & Lee Gutteridge
Featured Event in North America:
Go Wild! Nature Fair in Coyote Run Fairfield Park
By Sandy Reed
Featured Event in Human Culture:
Wild Clay Pots
by Cal Reed
February 2024 News, Stories and Events from Original Wisdom
An eastern coyote straddle trots across Alum Creek in Ohio. This months leading photo was taken by Original Wisdom staff Sandy Reed in one of the rare moments this year that snow accumulated in central Ohio.
Tracker Tuesdays #13, OriginalWisdom.com “News for Trackers”
October Answers to our #WeeklyTrackingChallenge Interested in online and correspondence tracking courses? Visit us at TrackerMentoring.com! Answer list: An African wildcat track from South Africa, Crested francolin feathers from South Africa, and Mud-dauber wasp sign collecting mud in Connecticut in the USA. (Sorry for the delay on these answers for October while I was defending […]
Tracker Tuesdays #12
September Answers to our Weekly Tracking Challenge Answer list: a female solifuge burrow in South Africa, Cape buffalo dung in South Africa, a fallen wren nest in Poland, and European badger tracks in England. The art and science of tracking develops creative and critical thinking skills, and curiosity and empathy, which also help us to […]
Tracker Tuesdays #11
Whoops, we slipped a bit! This newsletter covers questions posed in both July and Aug, 2020. We’ve moved to a monthly newsletter format for #TrackerTuesdays, so a new question SHOULD be posed every Tuesday, and answers SHOULD be published on the first Tuesday of every month. We apologize for the delay in publishing this one, […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Answers for June 2020
We’ve moved to a monthly newsletter format for #TrackerTuesdays, so a new question will be posed every Tuesday, and answers will be published on the first Tuesday of every month. Answer list: Spotted towhee from the Channel Islands in California; Namaqua rock mouse nest from the Republic of South Africa; zebra tracks from the Republic […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 9
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 9 Answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. HEADS UP, TRACKERS! Even though we aren’t out of the proverbial “woods” yet with this coronavirus pandemic, I need to start transitioning away from a #DAILYTRACKINGCHALLENGE. While […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 8!
Here’s a link to our newsletter at Original Wisdom, with detailed answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge. Answers for 20 – 25 May 2020 This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. We post a question a day, except for Tuesdays because that’s Answer Day! Answer […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 7
Answers to our Daily Tracking Challenge This is a time to create and share content that engages, entertains, educates and inspires the world. We post a question a day, except for Tuesdays because that’s Answer Day! Answer list: Bennett’s wallaby tracks from Tasmania; grey squirrel tracks in snow from Connecticut in the USA; lilac-breasted roller […]
Tracker Tuesdays – Week 6
Answer Day for 13 – 18 May 2020 Answer list: puff adder (snake) trail from the Republic of South Africa; emerald-spotted wood dove tracks from the Republic of South Africa; pheasant cecal scat from southern England; mourning dove tracks from New England in the USA; white rhinoceros tracks from the Republic of South Africa; a Charops […]
“Ledyard native a top international wildlife tracker” – The Day Newspaper
While in the USA recently, I was interviewed by a reporter, Amanda Hutchinson, from The Day newspaper in Connecticut. Here is a link to the article that just came out today: Ledyard native a top international wildlife tracker
Trailing, and an encounter with an elephant
Trailing, and an encounter with an elephant – UCONN Aug 2015 group We walked out of camp and into the South African sunrise. I stepped over the tracks of three big dugga boys (Cape buffalo bulls) who had recently headed in the direction that Lee had taken with the other students, and silently said a […]