As we followed the dusty and well worn road far back into the wild depths of our ranch, my 4 year old daughter, beautiful and inquisitive just like her mother suddenly exclaimed: “Baba, what are these?”

Looking down at the dry floury ground which gave way to the appearance of something more akin to talcum powder than actual dirt,  I closely examined what she had been excitedly pointing to.  “Those are a Dung Beetle’s tracks,”  I said to her, “wanna’ follow em’ and see what Mr. Beetle has been up to today?”

“Sure,” she replied, and then immediately began the meditative ritual which I had taught to her since she was able to walk and accompany me throughout the ranches.

Close your eyes and take two very deep breaths then hold the last breath until you can’t hold it any longer, then hold it just a little longer than that. Then slowly let the air out of your lungs through your lips which should be formed into the shape of a small “O”  just as if you were about to whistle a little tune.  After having completed this learned task we both knelt down upon the ground and began to study closely the pin prick impressions of the beetle’s footprints left behind by his busy meanderings.

The first thing which my daughter noticed was that the beetle seemed to stop and turn circles about every three to five of her little steps, or about every four feet.   “This is because he is scenting the air,” I explained to her.   “The beetle is stopping every so often and trying to catch the scent of something good to eat.”

“What does he eat,” she then asked?

“Well, his main food source is dung, or as you would understand it as ‘Poop’.”

At the suggestion of any creature subsisting off of  another animals feces my little girl scrunched up her face and loudly expostulated, “Eeew’ you kidding!”  

“No, I am serious.  These type of beetles are able to get all of the nutrients and moisture that they need from cow, deer, coyote, pig or whatever animal leaves it’s droppings upon the ground.  Every animal’s feces contains little tiny microbes and other small organisms which the dung beetle then extracts from their excrement.  There is also enough moisture in those droppings for the beetle so that he never has to take a drink of water as well. Now lets get back to tracking this one and see if we can catch up to him.”

“O.K.,” she said happily. 

We continued to follow the insect’s tracks down and across the road where they abruptly seemed to end as it traveled out and across a small grassy glade. “Where did he go?” she asked.

I then told her to sit down at the last visible set of tracks and to stare at them for a little while.  She was only able to sit for about 30 seconds until boredom began to take over and then she stood up shrugged her shoulders and said, “We lost him!”  

I then repeated to her that she must stare a little longer at the last visible set of tracks and imagine where he might have gone to next.  “What do these insects eat?” I asked her.  

“Poop,” she exclaimed.  

“Why was this beetle stopping and turning circles every few feet as he was walking?”  

“Looking for food,” was her next answer.

“Now, look out in front of us and what do you see laying on the ground that might entice this insect to go in a certain direction?”  

“Some buffalo poop,” she answered back.

There was in fact a fresh pile of bison droppings several feet out in front of us. I then told her to visually draw a straight line from the last visible set of the beetle’s tracks and out to the bison droppings, and then to imagine which direction the beetle might take if he smelled the feces which lay upon the ground there in front of us.  Then I told her to stare at the last set of tracks again and imagine where the beetle might next step.  There was a very small dirt patch about two feet in front of  where the insect’s tracks ended and that is where she spotted its next set of tracks.  

“There,” she cried out, “I see his tracks!”  

I felt very proud of her, she had learned to imagine in her mind’s eye which direction the beetle might have taken and then followed her instincts and found the next set of tracks. It was a moment very reminiscent of the wizard Merlin’s tutelage of a young King Arthur (whom he called “Wart”) in the art of becoming the animal which he happened to be interested in, and seeing the world through that animal’s eyes.

Now, we were faced with the same problem as before.  Where were the next set of tracks?  The rest of the ground had  became a hard packed and dried grass surface with very little to none of the soft and powdery soil which had made our previous tracking of the beetle easy.  And as we once again came to this impasse, I recalled how my tracking teachers from Tom Brown, Jr’s school of tracking and nature awareness had taught me to “see” with my mind and not only just with my eyes.

You can check out Tom Brown, Jr.s site , and I highly recommend that all serious  hunters consider taking at least one course from him.  Even a veteran hunter will be surprised at what new things can be learned .

An example would be, if you can remember back in the “80″s when those very elaborate computer generated images were the latest fad and were being sold at shopping malls all over the country.  These images, at first glance, looked like nothing but a bunch of multi colored geometric squiggles on a flat piece of paper.  When you would stand and stare at the “mish mosh” of imagery for a few seconds while letting your eyes relax and slightly go out of focus, then all of a sudden a 3-D image would pop out from within the design. This picture could be a number of things from a sunken pirate ship to a veritable landscape of associated panoramic imagery.  Maybe even a dog or a cat, or maybe intricate portraits of a wooded area complete with deer and flowers would transform right before your very eyes..

This is exactly how tracking an animal can become, when you think that you have lost the track then sit down, close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths and then imagine where the animal would step next.  Then, while slowly exhaling your last deep breath.  Open your eyes and then let your mind and eyes relax along with your eyes going just a bit out of focus.  You will soon be introduced to a wonderfully exciting, and color enhanced world surrounding you which you did not even know existed before.  The tracks, which previously were invisible and non-existent, will seem as though they magically pop out at you from the soil, and you will see them as clearly as if they were made upon soft ground.

I could have allowed my daughter to just simply walk over to the pile of bison dung and perhaps discovered the beetle over there busy at doing what a dung beetle does.  But I knew that this was a perfect opportunity to teach her the proper techniques in the “Art Of Tracking.”  

So as we went along, quite laboriously and painstakingly mapping out each newly discovered set of beetle tracks I began to see a a calm come over her as I had never before been witness to. This, then, would be the “Zen” to the art of tracking. She was as focused as any adult that I had ever seen when they were set upon a task of great importance.

I have read stories about the African bushmen and how they would stay upon a certain track for up to one hundred miles, on foot!  I had sat and listened to tales repeated by my own family of past relatives who were known to be able to track an animal for days, even over bare rock!  And as we slowly made our way to the now semi dried pile of bison dung, we finally discovered our quarry. For there, right in front of us was the little black dung beetle busy as could be rolling his balled prize as furiously and fast as he could towards an unseen burrow somewhere off in the distance.

Then suddenly she discovered the massive prints of  a very large animal,  and away we went, tracking the beast to which the native Americans aptly gave title, “Thunder-Hoof”!