The Land Cruiser has barely stopped before the trackers are out. One of them walks back a few yards, bends down and studies a mark in the dirt that you might have driven straight over without giving it a second thought.
To you, it looks like a buffalo track.
To a Zambian tracking team, it may already be telling a bigger story.
How recently did the buffalo pass? Was it one bull, several bulls or part of a herd? Were they travelling with purpose, feeding as they moved or beginning to slow down? What does the dung, disturbed grass and other sign add to the picture? Most importantly, is this spoor fresh and promising enough to justify leaving the vehicle and following it for the next several hours?
For an American hunter on his first buffalo hunting safari in Zambia, this can be one of the great lessons of the hunt. Long before you judge horns through binoculars or settle behind the sticks, your PH and trackers have been making decisions from clues most of us would struggle to notice.
But spoor has limits.
A big track doesn't tell you how wide the horns are. Fresh dung doesn't guarantee the buffalo will be caught. And even the most promising tracks cannot tell the PH whether the bull at the end of them is suitable, old enough or simply the right buffalo to hunt.
Spoor can earn a buffalo a follow. The buffalo still has to earn the shot.
Fresh Spoor Isn't a Stopwatch
A fresh buffalo track can be worth following, but “fresh” does not mean a tracker can look at a hoofprint and tell you the buffalo passed 37 minutes ago.
The condition of the track matters. So does the ground it was made in, what the weather has done since, and what has happened around it. A sharp, undisturbed print in suitable soil may offer useful clues, while the same track on hard or heavily travelled ground can be more difficult to read.
Trackers rarely rely on the hoofprint alone.
Dung can help. So can freshly disturbed vegetation, scuffed ground, bent or broken grass and other sign along the buffalo's line of travel. Wind, rain and even overnight dew can change how those clues look. Put several of them together and the tracking team can begin forming a much better picture of how recently the buffalo moved through.
Experience with the local ground matters too. A tracker who works the same Zambian hunting concession season after season knows how tracks hold in its soil, where sign becomes difficult to read and how quickly conditions can alter it.
Two tracks that look equally “fresh” to the hunter may not receive the same attention from the PH and trackers. One may have enough supporting sign to justify a follow. The other may be yesterday's buffalo leaving this morning's hunter several miles behind.
Track age is an informed judgement, not a timestamp. Once the tracking team believes the spoor is fresh enough to follow, the next question becomes more interesting:
What kind of buffalo left it?
One Dagga Boy, Several Bulls or a Herd?
If the spoor is fresh, the tracking team will want to know more than which direction the buffalo went. They also want to understand what they may be following.
A single set of tracks may point to a lone dagga boy. Several sets moving together could indicate a group of bulls, while a confusion of overlapping spoor may belong to a larger herd. The trackers look at how the tracks relate to one another, where they join or separate and whether additional buffalo have crossed the same ground at a different time.
That can become difficult quickly.
Buffalo rarely walk leaving a neat row of tracks for hunters to follow. Animals cross one another's paths, turn, feed and move through ground already marked by other game. Around water, game trails or feeding areas, yesterday's spoor can sit beside tracks made much more recently.
Movement adds another clue. Buffalo travelling steadily in one direction leave a different problem from animals that have been feeding, milling around or stopping to rest. A tracking team may therefore be trying to work out not only how many buffalo are ahead, but what those buffalo were doing when they left the sign behind.
This matters because in Cape buffalo hunting, following a herd is not the same proposition as following one or two bulls. A herd brings more eyes, ears and noses into the equation. A small group of bulls may leave less spoor to untangle, but that doesn't make them easier to catch.
And even when the trackers believe they are following bull tracks, the spoor hasn't answered the question the hunter really wants answered.
Is there a good bull at the end of them?
That requires another distinction.
A Big Track Isn't a Trophy Measurement
A big buffalo track will get attention. It may suggest a heavy animal and give the tracking team another reason to investigate, particularly when it is part of fresh spoor from one or two bulls.
But there is only so much a hoofprint can tell you.
The size and shape of a track, the depth of the impression and the animal's stride may offer clues about the buffalo that made it. Trackers also read those clues in context. A deep print in soft ground does not automatically mean a big bull, just as a smaller-looking track on hard ground does not necessarily belong to a young buffalo.
A track cannot show you the horns.
It cannot tell you the spread, shape or condition of the horns, whether the bosses are hard and polished, or whether the bull is old enough and suitable to hunt. Those decisions require the PH to see the buffalo and judge the animal itself.
That matters when several sets of bull tracks are available. The biggest-looking spoor is not automatically the best buffalo to follow. Freshness, direction of travel, how the animals appear to be moving and the likelihood of catching them can all influence which track the team chooses.
There is a difference between finding a track worth following and finding a buffalo worth hunting.
The first gets you off the Land Cruiser.
The second may still be several hours and a good many miles away.
Is This Buffalo Going Somewhere We Can Catch Him?
Once the team decides a track is worth following, the spoor starts answering a different question: are the hunters gaining on the buffalo, or simply following them across Zambia?
Fresh tracks do not necessarily mean the buffalo are close. A bull travelling steadily can remain well ahead of the hunters, even when the spoor is clear enough to follow.
The trackers will watch for any changes along the way.
Tracks that continue purposefully in one direction may suggest the buffalo are still moving. Sign showing that they have slowed to feed, wandered around or stopped to rest tells a different story. The more time the buffalo spend doing something other than walking away, the better the hunters' chances of closing the gap.
The trackers have the advantage of comparison. After following the same spoor for several miles, they can judge whether the sign appears fresher than it did when they started. If it does, they may be gaining ground. If nothing seems to change, those buffalo may still be walking faster than the hunters can catch them.
That matters because a track can remain perfectly readable without remaining worth following.
At some point, the PH and trackers may decide that the buffalo have too much of a head start, are moving too quickly or are taking the hunt in a direction that makes continuing unlikely to produce an encounter. Abandoning good spoor can be just as much a hunting decision as following it.
From the hunter's position at the back of the line, it may look as though the question is simply:
Can we keep following these tracks?
The better question is:
Are these tracks taking us closer to the buffalo?
Sometimes the answer becomes obvious within an hour. Sometimes it takes several miles to find out.
And sometimes a perfectly good buffalo track never produces a buffalo at all.
When Good Spoor Suddenly Disappears
Following buffalo spoor would be easier if the ground stayed cooperative. It doesn't.
A clear line of tracks can lead onto hard ground where the impressions become faint, through dry leaves that hold almost nothing, or into grass where the next obvious hoofprint simply isn't there. Other animals may have crossed the same trail, while several buffalo moving through an area can leave enough overlapping spoor to make following one line difficult.
The last reliable track becomes important.
The principle is like following a blood trail from a wounded animal: you don't abandon the last sign you trust and start guessing where the animal went.
Rather than continuing in the direction they hope the buffalo travelled, trackers may return to the last reliable sign. From there, they work forward again, checking likely lines of travel and looking for the next small clue that belongs with the spoor they were following.
Sometimes that clue is another clear track. Sometimes it is a scuff in the soil, disturbed grass or something subtle enough that the hunter walks straight past it.
Once the spoor is picked up again, the story continues.
But losing a track also tells the tracking team something important: the ground has changed, and the way they read the buffalo must change with it.
That is part of what makes hunting in Zambia so interesting. The spoor doesn't disappear because the buffalo suddenly stopped leaving tracks. It disappears because the country stopped making those tracks easy to see.
And somewhere ahead, the buffalo are still walking.
What Hunters Ask About Tracking Buffalo in Zambia
How Much Walking Is Involved When Tracking Buffalo in Zambia?
There is no standard distance. Fresh spoor may produce an encounter relatively quickly, or hunters may follow buffalo for several miles without catching them. Terrain, the buffalo's movement and how much of a head start they have can all influence the day. Tracking on foot is one of the experiences hunters should be prepared for when considering big game hunting in Zambia.
Is Tracking Buffalo Typical on African Hunting Trips?
Tracking plays an important role on many African hunting trips, although how a hunt unfolds depends on the species, country and hunting area. Following fresh spoor on foot is particularly important on many Cape buffalo hunts, where finding the animals can require hours behind an experienced tracking team.
Do Fresh Buffalo Tracks Mean the Buffalo Are Close?
Not necessarily. Fresh spoor tells the tracking team that buffalo passed through relatively recently, but travelling animals can remain well ahead of the hunters. Trackers continue reading changes in the spoor and surrounding sign to judge whether they appear to be gaining ground.
Can Trackers Tell if Buffalo Spoor Belongs to a Mature Bull?
Spoor can provide clues about the animal that made it, and experienced trackers may have good reason to believe they are following one or more bulls. But tracks cannot confirm horn spread, boss condition or whether a buffalo is suitable to hunt. The PH still needs to see and judge the bull before that decision can be made.
When Tracking Becomes the Approach
At some point, a buffalo track can begin telling the team something everyone has been hoping for.
They may be getting close.
The spoor may be noticeably fresher. Dung may still be moist. Tracks may show that the buffalo have slowed, fed or stopped for a time. Occasionally, even the strong smell of fresh buffalo urine can add another clue, particularly when the wind carries it toward the team.
None of these signs tells the hunters exactly how far ahead the buffalo are. But together they can change the way the team moves.
The pace slows. Conversation disappears. The PH pays increasing attention to the wind. Dry leaves and branches that barely mattered several miles earlier suddenly seem capable of making enough noise to wake half of Zambia.
The trackers are still following spoor, but the purpose has changed. They are no longer trying simply to work out where the buffalo went. They are trying to locate them
without announcing that a group of hunters is coming up behind them. Sometimes the first sight is nothing more than a dark shape through the bush. Sometimes several buffalo appear where the tracks suggested only a few. A bull may be partly hidden, facing the wrong direction or standing among other animals.
And this is where the spoor reaches the limit of what it can tell you. The tracks got the hunters here. They may have suggested bulls, movement, size and how recently the animals passed. But now the PH needs to see the buffalo clearly enough to judge the animal itself.
Only then can questions about age, bosses, horn condition and whether this is the right bull to hunt be answered. Finding the tracks began the hunt. Finding the buffalo begins the judgement.
And after several miles behind a good Zambian tracking team, that ordinary-looking hoofprint beside the Land Cruiser doesn't look quite so ordinary anymore.
About the Author
Tamlyn van Wyk is co-founder of Game Hunting Safaris and an experienced African hunter. Her own buffalo hunt in South Africa included days spent tracking a wounded buffalo, giving her firsthand appreciation for the skill, patience and persistence involved in following buffalo spoor.