Who Dung It? Scores!

Hi everyone,

It is always a thrill to see an animal, bird or insect while out on drive, but sometimes to find them you have to track them. Knowing the tracks and signs of an animal is an ancient skill which was and still is practiced by many cultures from across the world, from the Aborigines in Australia, to the Bushmen of Southern Africa and Indians in America. It takes years of learning and understanding the bush to read these signs and interpret the story they leave behind.

The first step is identification! This is where we come in. As guides we often look at tracks and dung to see what has been in the area. It is amazing what information you can gain just by looking at them. You can determine the direction the animal was heading, roughly how long ago they were there, what their last meal was, sometimes even what sex the animal is and if it is healthy or injured. It is useful for a guide as this information can help us to locate a particular species we would like to find for our guests.

Stacy’s design

Since training I have thoroughly enjoyed this side of guiding and enjoy showing others the neat little tricks to differentiate between a hyena and a lion track or an impala and kudu track, or even rhino and elephant dung! The quiz started out from just getting viewers to identify the odd track or dung on drive. I then thought if I was watching I would like to test myself to see what I had learned and so the Who Dung It? quiz came about! So thank you to everyone who participated in the track and dung quiz. I hope you had as much fun as I do when I go for an assessment!