?

..experience.

Lots and lots of experience.

Tracks

developed the ability to see.

The guy that see's a rabbit before any of his buddies can has the potential to get good at tracking.

Determination

Always try to figure out why the critter travels where it does.

A tracking number.

Small feet!

X2 huntrap247
sometimes it is easy to see and follow footprints in snow,sand mud etc,but grass, moss,bare hard ground,or bush,where you cannot see footprints,tracking is a whole different ballgame.You need patience and good powers of observation.Bent grass,twigs and leaves disturbed or moved out of place,moss compressed ever so slightly,fur caught on twigs etc all take experience to read properly.

Be a multitasker

You must know your subject inside and out, without experience doing so your going to have a difficult time.

tracks

50% Native American tracker and 50% African tracker = Nothing can hide

lived in the 1800's. No need to be good at tracking anymore. We got atvs, 4x4 trucks, high power rifles, paved hiways through the bush, GPS, and google maps on our cell phones. Anyone trying to learn habitat the old fashioned way will be really sorry when the 240lb man wearing a buttoned up shirt and black pants comes up and hangs a treestand beside him and shoots a big buck.

I can tell you where coyotes and fox are travelling just by google maps. I know where bucks are bedding by looking at google maps and I don't even have to get out of my bed. The life!

Yea but can you track a wounded animal when the blood trail disappears.

Instincts & Patience

Yup. Wait 2 days and look for the crows. Like I said, it's not the 1800's anymore. People aren't hunting for food anymore, we aren't starving. Just give me my antlers! Lol jk haha!

Come hunt up here and you will change your mind real quick. Even down south it isn't true. The Benoit family is widely considered to be the best modern day deer hunters in NA. How do they kill so many big bucks?? By tracking thats how. Cell phones don't work out in the bush up here. I have to use old school methods and track all the time. Waiting for crows don't cut it when your client is paying a $1000 a day.......or if you need the meat to feed your family.

How many of your clients actually take the meat home?
I know how you guys hunt up there. You walk up a hill, pull your binoculars out, scan the bottom of the hill, spot the animal 2 miles away then walk towards it and shoot it from 600 yards away. Or have a buddy with an airplane tell you where they're at. Your clients are paying $1000's to shoot a trophy. You'll do whatever it takes to make them happy and get a tip. Even hunting in someone else's allocation or calling that pilot.

...........made a number of poor shots in their lifetime.

If the answer to the question is supposed to be one word, then the person asking the question does not know how to track.

X2 you can't sum it up in one word

Know what the ground looks like without tracks.

I had a real good time learning mantracking techniques from a group of retired US borderpatrolman who had done it for a living...the called themselves UTS and taught classes to US Army Rangers and various search and rescue outfits as well as law enforcement....opens your eyes to a whole new world you didnt know existed

Hiis head hanging down.

Eye sight

snow.

Lol.

Moxie

Patience!

Knowledge.

a elephant with a bloody nose and snow!!