About Us

Original Wisdom specializes in Tracker Mentoring and Study Abroad education and research programs based on wildlife ecology and tracking and bushcraft and human culture. We develop for-credit courses for universities, colleges, and high schools. We also develop courses for trackers, wilderness schools and intrepid adventurers.

These courses range from pre-departure curriculum in on-line, distance-learning forums, through to comprehensive, customised, in-the-field program content. On-line course content is designed with the visiting course leader or professor to their course goals, objectives, and desired time period. Field programs typically last 14-21 days. Custom or specialist content field programs may be shorter, or longer. Many of these programs are co-run with our highly-respected provider-on-the-ground, Nature Guide Training, in South Africa.

Original Wisdom and Nature Guide Training have been working together since 2008, and have developed quality programs for hundreds of students from the University of Connecticut, Western Kentucky University, Johnson and Wales University (4 campuses: Rhode Island, Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina), Hopkinton High School (NH), Bow High School (NH), Christ School (NC), New Albany High School (OH), Bolton High School (CT), and White Pine Programs (ME), among others. Please contact us for references. We run these programs in South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, and the USA, and we are currently developing programs in Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, India, and Europe.

We have developed and run courses in Field Ecology, Ecological Research Methods, African Field Ecology and Culture, History and Political Science of South Africa, Tourism and Hospitality, Conservation and Sustainability, and on specialised topics such as: Field Ornithology, Field Mammalogy, Herpetology, Ethnobotany, Geology and Paleoanthropology, Animal Behaviour, Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Management, Water Resources, Tracking and Leadership, Women & Tracking, Invertebrate Tracks and Sign, and in Beginning and Advanced Tracking.

Watch a 3 minute video of us in action, here:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEsWQ0n6aqk[/embedyt]

 

In our tracking programs, we teach track and sign identification and interpretation and trailing (the ability to identify and follow animal trails to the animals) to the CyberTracker standard of evaluating wildlife trackers. CyberTracker is the gold-standard for certifying trackers across the world. Members of our team include some of the most highly qualified trackers, naturalists and teachers in the world. 

Tracking is arguably THE “Original Wisdom” of any culture, and combined with modern, i.e. “original” technologies and scientific methods it is not just a verifiable skill, it is also a powerful tool in the field-skills toolbox of natural and social scientists.

Tracking is more than following footprints and finding animals. Tracking causes us to link together everything we know about animal behaviour (including humans) and their environment. Tracking is the way the mind works, putting together pieces of information to make sense of a bigger picture. Obvious benefits of tracking include increased awareness of animal behavior and interactions between animals, as well as how they use the landscape and how they are moved by the landscape. Less obvious benefits of tracking include: overall increased awareness of one’s surroundings (this is important in wild areas and increasingly in cities); connection to the natural world while learning appropriate uses for modern technology; the ability to see beauty in everyday things; identification of personal fears and future goals and a methodology to work through fears toward goals; and comfort with oneself, comfort with others in community, and comfort of being in the natural world.

Huge lion track next to George's hand

A Shangaan tracker uses his hand for scale to demonstrate the size of a big male lion’s track, where he stepped in soft mud that later dried.

Please explore the rest of our website and subscribe to our blog, join us on social media, and feel free to Contact Us for more information on an existing program or to develop a custom program.

Download our recommended reading list for trackers by signing up for our “News for Trackers” newsletter!

Our goal is NOT to be spammy with our newsletter. We’d just like to send occasional updates on upcoming programs and maybe some cool info on wildlife, people, and tracking!

Once the sign-up form has been submitted, you will be re-directed to the download page.

Download our recommended tracking book list (and some other resources). It’s specific to Southern Africa and North America, but, a good tracking book is helpful in any region as a starting point to learn how to look at track morphology and animal behavior.








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    4 Comments on “About Us

    1. These professionals provide an eclectic experience full of adventure, learning, and fun!

    2. An amazing company to work with, my South African nature based studies company is proud to associate with both Kersey and Original Wisdom as a US partner.