Title: First Field Guide to Animal Tracks of Southern Africa
Author: Louis Liebenberg
Genre: Wildlife tracking guide
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa (Struik Nature)
2nd edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2016
ISBN 9781775844822 / ISBN 978-1-77584-482-2
Softcover, 11 x 17 cm, 56 pages, 70 illustrations
The First Field Guide to Animal Tracks of Southern Africa will help to decipher the more common tracks encountered in southern Africa. The animal's spoor may vary according to its age, mass, sex and condition. It may also have a unique way of walking or a particular habit that distinguishes it from other individuals of the same species. People today are often not familiar with the immense variety of animal life that surrounds them, simply because most animals are rarely seen. To a 'spoor conscious' tracker, however, animal tracks may reveal the activities of a multitude of animals. Leopards, for example, are very elusive and thus hardly ever seen. They have the uncanny ability to live near human settlements, often on the periphery of large cities. Finding leopard tracks in unexpected places can be exhilarating. Even if you never see the animal, the knowledge that it is there is immensely gratifying. By reconstructing animal movements from footprints, you may be able to visualise the actions of that animal. In this way a whole story may unfold a story of what happened when no one was looking.
Introduction
What is tracking?
Where and how to look
Wildlife in miniature
Species accounts
Glossary & photographic credits
Checklist
Further reading
Key to languages:
A: Afrikaans
S: Sotho
X: Xhosa
Z: Zulu
Aardvark, Aardwolf, African Buffalo, African Civet, African Wild Cat, African Wild Dog, Antbear, Bat-eared Fox, Black-backed Jackal, Blue Wildebeest, Burchell's Zebra, Cape, Clawless Otter, Caracal, Chacma Baboon, Cheetah, Common Duiker, Egyptian Goose, Eland, Elephant, Gemsbok, Giraffe, Guineafowl, Hares, Hippopotamus, Honey Badger, Klipspringer, Kori Bustard, Kudu, Leopard, Southern Lesser Galago (Bushbaby), Lion, Meerkat, Mice, Ostrich, Passerines, Porcupine, Rats, Small-spotted Genet, Snakes, Spotted Hyaena, Springbok, Springhare, Steenbok, Striped Polecat, Suricate, Tortoises, Vervet Monkey, Warthog, Water Mongoose and White Rhinoceros.