Jonah Evans, CyberTracker Evaluator and host of naturetracking.com, sent me an audio file of a talk I gave on the CyberTracker Tracker Evaluation system, at the International Society of Professional Trackers in 2005 (I think) in Texas, just before we gave the first tracker evaluation to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department employees responsible for river otter surveys in the eastern portions of the state. It was a historic moment, and tremendous fun to boot. Since then, we’ve evaluated and trained about 90 staff of Texas Parks and Wildlife. They were brave enough to let us assess their staff, and it was the perfect launch to North American tracker evaluations–working with people who utilize tracking skills in their everyday work and lives. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Its a long talk (link below), just to warn you, but mostly anecdotal and hopefully entertaining. Its fun to look back and consider how far the system has grown in this country over the last 14ish years. If we include those in training, we’ve about a dozen evaluators working across North America now, spreading the system created by Louis Liebenberg so many years ago in South Africa. Numerous countries have hosted evaluations around the globe, ranging from Spain to Denmark to Vietnam to Botswana to Canada. The system continues to grow.

Thank you everyone who has contributed to its success.

Link to the talk.