# The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science

> Could tracking be where science began? In this landmark book, Louis Liebenberg draws on hunts with !Xo trackers in the Kalahari to argue that reading tracks and signs uses the same creative reasoning as modern physics: imagining what an animal did, predicting where its trail will lead, and revising the idea when the ground says otherwise.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 5 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1990-liebenberg-art-tracking-origin-science/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Louis Liebenberg
- **Year published:** 1990
- **Journal or source:** Book. Cape Town: David Philip Publishers. ISBN 0-86486-131-1
- **Full citation:** Liebenberg, L. 1990. The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science. Cape Town: David Philip Publishers.
- **Access status:** Publisher link only (free PDF from CyberTracker Conservation; © Louis Liebenberg, all rights reserved)
- **Where to find it:** https://cybertracker.org/science/the-art-of-tracking/

## Tags

- **Species:** Humans
- **Region:** Africa > Botswana
- **Tracking:** Beds; Blood; Bones; Burrows; Feeding signs; Footprints; Individual identification; Paths; Scat; Spoor age estimation; Tracking; Tracks and signs identification; Trailing; Urine
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Communication; Feeding; Hunting; Movement; Persistence hunting; Predation; Scavenging
- **Methods and technology:** Ethnographic fieldwork; Linear regression; Literature review
- **Data type:** Modelling or theoretical; New field data; Review
- **Observer qualification:** Other experienced trackers
- **Discipline:** Anthropology; Human tracking; Palaeoanthropology; Philosophy of science; Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 1990

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: humans, meaning Kalahari hunter-gatherer trackers, chiefly the !Xo, with the /Gwi and Ju/wasi (Ju/’hoansi, also called !Kung) from published fieldwork; the /Xam (from Bleek and Lloyd) and the Hadza of Tanzania (from Woodburn) are also discussed. Animals most discussed as quarry or examples: gemsbok (Oryx gazella), greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), eland (Taurotragus oryx), red hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), steenbok (Raphicerus campestris), common duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia), springhare (Pedetes capensis), Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis), aardvark (antbear, Orycteropus afer), ostrich (Struthio camelus), lion (Panthera leo), leopard (Panthera pardus), black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), brown hyena (Hyaena brunnea), bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis), suricate (Suricata suricatta), spotted-necked otter (Hydrictis maculicollis), Namaqua dove (Oena capensis), black-faced babbler (Turdoides melanops), grey go-away-bird (Corythaixoides concolor), bateleur (Terathopius ecaudatus) and vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus). Arrow poison: larvae of leaf beetles (Diamphidia and Polyclada) and their parasite Lebistina. The tracks and signs chapter covers invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals in general.
- **Location and habitat:** Author’s fieldwork (1985): two !Xo groups at Ngwatle Pan and Lone Tree Borehole in the Kalahari, Botswana, in semi-arid savanna on Kalahari sand. Also discussed: the southern, central and northern Kalahari (rainfall from about 150 mm to over 600 mm a year); the Dobe and Nyae Nyae areas; Kalahari Gemsbok National Park; Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, Sabi River and Kruger National Park in South Africa; taiga and tundra; El Castillo cave in Spain; and the archaeological sites of Klasies River Mouth, Laetoli, Torralba and Lebenstedt.
- **Topics:** origin of science; evolution of tracking; simple, systematic and speculative tracking; inductive-deductive and hypothetico-deductive reasoning; human evolution and hunter-gatherer subsistence (foraging, gathering, scavenging, meat robbing, hunting); persistence hunting; bow and poison-arrow hunting; hunting with dogs; snaring and trapping; spoor interpretation; estimating spoor age; identifying individual people and animals from spoor; anthropomorphism and empathy; intuition and peripheral perception; presentiments, divining and hunting magic; scientific research programmes (Lakatos); critical discussion among trackers; learning to track; rock art; tracking for conservation, anti-poaching and research.
- **Statistics or models:** Mostly none: a theoretical argument and a review. One small test of spoor-age estimation used the method of least squares (a fitted straight line) and correlation coefficients. Samples were 12 estimates in near-windless conditions and 16 in windy conditions.
- **Data type:** Modelling or theoretical, and review: the book draws on anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology and the philosophy of science. New field data: the author’s 1985 fieldwork with two groups of !Xo hunters, including the spoor-age test.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Liebenberg argues that the art of tracking may be the origin of science. He says tracking calls for the same intellectual abilities as modern physics and mathematics.

The book has three parts:

- Part I, human evolution. He sets tracking in the story of human evolution, defines different ways of getting food (foraging, gathering, scavenging and hunting), and asks where and when tracking could have evolved.

- Part II, Kalahari hunter-gatherers. He describes how Kalahari hunter-gatherers hunt and what they know about spoor and animal behaviour. This part draws on anthropological studies from the 1950s to the 1970s and on his own 1985 fieldwork hunting with two groups of !Xo hunters at Ngwatle Pan and Lone Tree in Botswana, who still hunted regularly.

- Part III, the fundamentals of tracking. He sets out the principles of tracking, classifies tracks and signs, explains spoor interpretation, and compares tracking with modern science.

The book is illustrated with the author’s own drawings.

### 2. What they found

Three levels of tracking

- Simple tracking: following clear footprints in easy conditions, such as soft bare sand or thin snow.

- Systematic tracking: gathering information from signs step by step where footprints are harder to see.

- Speculative tracking: building a working hypothesis from the first signs, knowledge of animal behaviour and knowledge of the terrain, then looking for signs where you expect them to be.

Simple and systematic tracking rest on inductive-deductive reasoning, based on experience. Speculative tracking rests on hypothetico-deductive reasoning and can predict new facts. Real trackers combine systematic and speculative tracking, and individual trackers lean one way or the other.

Where tracking may have begun

- Liebenberg suggests tracking began where it is easiest: in arid areas like the southern Kalahari dunes, where gemsbok are common, or in snow.

- It would have developed as conditions got harder, with denser grass and woodland, or harder ground. The Kalahari runs gradually from the open southern dunelands to the northern woodland, which would have allowed a smooth transition.

- The jump from tracking in snow to tracking on dry ground is far more abrupt. He suggests this may be one reason modern trackers more likely evolved in Africa than in cold regions.

- Speculative tracking, which needs a modern intellect, probably developed with or after anatomically modern humans. If it developed at the same time as the modern brain, selection for tracking may have helped shape the brain.

Earliest evidence

He reinterprets bell-shaped figures in an early Magdalenian painting at El Castillo cave, Spain, as ungulate hoofprints in soft mud showing a jumping gait. The figures had been read earlier as stylised female sex organs.

Kalahari hunting

- He describes hunting equipment, poison arrows, burrow hunting, snares, pit traps, drives, persistence hunting, bow-and-arrow hunting followed by tracking down the wounded animal, chasing lions off kills, hunting with dogs, and hunting from horseback.

- Persistence hunting: at Lone Tree, !Xo hunters ran down steenbok, duiker and gemsbok in the rainy season and kudu, eland and red hartebeest in the dry season.

- At Ngwatle Pan, hunters hunted only with dogs, mainly for gemsbok, which tend to stand and fight. Even then they had to read spoor to direct the dogs.

- Hunting from horseback is much more efficient but needs far less skill.

Learning and skill

- Children learn through play, hunting small animals and listening to stories. Hunters say you must teach yourself.

- A young !Xo tracker questioned his elder’s interpretation and offered a better one. A !Xo tracker said a young man who does not learn to think for himself will have a head “only half full.”

- Citing Richard Lee’s data on Ju/wasi hunters aged 15 to 38: 95 to 100% of kudu kills were made by the better half of the hunters, and 70% by only 17% of them. Liebenberg reads this as support for his view that tracking needs above-average intellectual ability.

What trackers can read

- !Xo trackers identify individual people by their spoor, and the spoor of most animals larger than mongooses. They picked out a Namaqua dove from his drawings of dove spoor.

- Women were as knowledgeable about spoor as men; one young woman “almost put the men to shame.”

- The trackers knew porcupines are monogamous, which research later confirmed. Liebenberg takes this to mean they can recognize individual porcupines by their spoor.

Spoor-age test

- Liebenberg marked his own footprints over time and tested four !Xo trackers. He reports results for the two best, N!am!kabe and N!ate of Lone Tree.

- In near-windless conditions, for spoor about 10 hours old, the average error was about 5 hours.

- Errors were larger in windy conditions and grew as spoor got older. Samples were small (12 and 16 estimates).

- He concludes that rough estimates are enough for hunting.

How trackers reason

- Trackers reconstruct what animals did. For example, the !Xo found a resting wildebeest near its feeding ground by reading earlier days’ tracks.

- Their knowledge of animal behaviour is anthropomorphic but works well in practice.

- They keep direct observation, reconstruction from tracks and speculation separate.

- They debate interpretations. A dominant personality can win an argument, even when, in Liebenberg’s view, he was wrong. The most imaginative tracker, often mocked for “telling stories,” was the one who tracked down a wildebeest after the others had given up.

Beyond direct evidence

Hunters also use intuition and “peripheral perception” (sensing an animal’s presence or danger), presentiments, divining (among the Ju/wasi) and hunting magic. Liebenberg offers possible explanations, such as subconscious reading of signs, self-fulfilling prophecy and selective memory.

Principles of tracking

- Know what undisturbed ground looks like.

- Beware of preconceived images, and don’t decide too quickly.

- Keep the spoor between you and the sun; tracking is best in the morning and late afternoon.

- Look about 5 to 10 m ahead.

- Anticipate the route, and move with stealth when the spoor is fresh.

Classification of signs

He lists the kinds of sign: spoor, scent, urine and faeces, saliva, pellets, feeding signs, sounds, visual signs, incidental and circumstantial signs, blood spoor, skeletal signs, territorial signs, paths, and homes and shelters.

Spoor interpretation

- How feet are adapted to speed, terrain and use, from invertebrates to mammals.

- How sex, age, size, mass and individual identity show in tracks.

- How substrate changes a print, and how to read gaits and actions.

- How to judge spoor age from drying, wind, colour change, superimposed tracks, dew and rain.

### 3. What they concluded

- Tracking is a science in its most basic form. Its differences from modern science are mainly technical and sociological; the reasoning and intellectual abilities are fundamentally the same.

- Modern science has grown mainly in quantity, not in quality.

- Each hunt, each tracker and each band can be seen as a “research programme.” Sharing meat gave trackers the freedom to be wrong and try new ideas, while the success of the hunt kept the shared knowledge of the band progressive.

- The tracker is in direct contact with nature, and anyone can check an interpretation against the ground. Modern science depends more on trust in documents and instruments, and is more authoritarian, including in how it teaches.

- Science may have flowered in open societies because it began in egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies.

- Tracking could be developed into a new science with practical uses in conservation.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

Tracking is the subject of the book.

The author hunted with two groups of !Xo hunters in 1985 and describes trailing, spoor identification, spoor ageing and reconstruction as he saw them in the field. These include persistence hunts, bow-and-arrow hunts, and gemsbok hunts with dogs.

He also tested the trackers’ spoor-age estimates against his own footprints of known age. Many examples come from published accounts by Silberbauer, Lee, Marshall, Heinz, and Blurton Jones and Konner.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

- No formal certification is described; the book was written before the CyberTracker evaluation system existed.

- The trackers were traditional !Xo hunter-trackers. Liebenberg notes that hunting and tracking ability varies widely between individuals.

- In the spoor-age test, he reports only the two best of the four trackers tested, and says the results may not represent all hunters.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- Suggests combining radio-tracking with spoor interpretation, so researchers record what an animal did between fixes, not just where it went.

- Suggests preparing strips of smooth ground at waterholes and on paths to record which animals are present.

- Traditional skills described in detail: bow and poison-arrow making, snare design, the springhare probe, and using dogs.

- Hunting with dogs does not replace tracking skill. Even with dogs, hunters need a thorough understanding of tracking, animal behaviour and the environment. Dogs react only to scent and sounds close by, so hunters read spoor from previous days and direct the dogs. When a gemsbok runs out of sight, the hunters track it down until the dogs can chase it again. Hunting from horseback with dogs is more efficient but needs less skill.

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- Tracking may be the most effective way to control poaching: following poachers’ spoor, finding snares, patrolling on horseback, and even identifying individual poachers.

- It can help researchers study shy or nocturnal animals without disturbing them, and map rare species. For example, his own find of spotted-necked otter spoor in Sabi Sand Nature Reserve suggested the species may occur in neighbouring Kruger National Park.

- It can help farmers find the actual problem animal instead of killing innocent ones.

- Being “spoor conscious” can raise public awareness of wildlife that is rarely seen.

- Researchers working with trackers should learn the basics of tracking, so they can tell which parts of an interpretation rest on evidence and which on assumption.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The systematic and speculative tracking framework gives trackers and evaluators shared words for two complementary ways of following spoor, and for why each suits different terrain. Speculative tracking is also based on experience: the working hypothesis comes from the first signs combined with the tracker’s knowledge of animal behaviour and the terrain, built up over years in the field.

- The small spoor-age test against footprints of known age is an early example of checking tracker accuracy against a known answer. It is the kind of testing later reliability studies did on a larger scale.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science (Liebenberg, 1990). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/1990-liebenberg-art-tracking-origin-science/