With John Rhyder
Combine this course with a Trailing Evaluation straight after this course!
See Here...
We are delighted to be working with John Rhyder to offer this 3-day Trailing Workshop from our base in Perthshire. John is a Senior Tracker and Evaluator with Cybertracker and one of Europe's foremost tracking experts.
Trailing animals is not a dark art, it can be learned by anyone with an interest in wildlife and a curious spirit. In essence, trailing is about finding animals and being able to get close enough to see the animal itself. To do this requires skill, patience, knowledge of the animal and excellent field craft. Let us show you how!
How is 'Trailing' different from 'Track & Sign'?
Our 5-day Wildlife Tracking Course focuses primarily on learning how to read 'Track & Sign'. This is the study of the full diversity of tracks and signs that are left behind by our mammals, reptiles, birds invertebrates and more... It tends to drill into the details and is like the library of information about wildlife that you carry with you. It gives you an excellent ability to understand the natural world around you and is fundamental to tracking.
Trailing is about finding animals. It's about following tracks and signs to try to catch up to that animal. It starts with being able to identify fresh trails and then following them using all your fieldcraft skills to be able to get close. In the ultimate trailing experience, we can trail an animal, stalk up to it and see it and then remove ourselves from the area without it ever knowing we were there. There can be no better way to connect to the natural world and wildlife than trailing. It's an ancient skill and it's rightly seeing a revival amongst folks eager to experience the natural world in a deeper way.
For those who wish to take a Cybertracker Trailing Evaluation, John Rhyder will be offering evaluations immediately after this workshop on the 4th & 5th and 6th & 7th December in the Perthshire area. For more info, visit this page.
Supporting John for this workshop is certified 'Track and Sign Specialist' and Level II Tracker Steven Hanton for what promises to be an immersive trailing workshop. (For more on the Tracker Evaluation system, see the European Wildlife Tracking website).
What to expect on this Trailing Workshop
The course is not heavily theory based and we will be on the trails as soon as practically possible during the workshop. We will stay on these trails for as long as we can throughout each day to give as much 'dirt'time' as possible.
Tuition and support is given throughout as we start to put trailing into practice and approach animals by the second day. Essentially we will stop talking and see how close we can get to the quarry. We prefer to teach trailing in a realistic scenario and so after a fairly brief introduction the course will take place entirely on the trail. We tend to focus on ungulates, particularly Red Deer, to maximise our chances of trailing to a satisfactory conclusion. The skills of trailing on this workshop can be expanded to include other species as you progress as a tracker.
Trailing Workshop Details
This course is run from Glassie Bunkhouse by Aberfeldy. The bunkhouse has a mixture of shared rooms and bunks, a large group meeting space, catering kitchen and on-site parking. The views are also spectacular!!
From here we can venture by car to excellent trailing venues, returning to the bunkhouse in the evening to eat and share stories of the day's trailing.
This course is fully catered and accommodation is included. We don't have a minibus though and so we will rely on one or two students to offer their cars to carpool and help move the group to the best areas.
