If you have followed very much about the world of mantracking, a bulk of the information is limited to individual training techniques and references to the Rhodesian Bush War. Those are both valid and if you are interested in tracking, you should study them both.
Today we are talking about the idea of mantracking as a team sport seems to be an overlooked topic, especially if you go past the Rhodesian four-man tracking stick. Don’t get me wrong, everyone who has tracked professionally has spent quite a bit of time working without anyone else available to help. If you get lucky enough to have more people available, here are some ways you can employ them to increase your success.
For the person on the sign, the person who is directly following the footprints and other evidence of passage, I feel it works best to have a team of no more than two or three trackers. With two or three people you will have one person on the sign, and the other one or two people scanning ahead. These people will also be thoroughly checking any side trails to see if the quarry changed directions or split up.
The number of people on the sign should be brought to four if the person you are tracking is armed and dangerous. This will allow you to utilize the Rhodesian four-man tracker formation. It will also give you two two-man fire and maneuver elements if you get into a gun fight. I have seen and heard about much larger teams being employed due to the danger perceived from the quarry. I understand wanting overwhelming odds in your favor, sometimes too much of a good thing hurts you more than helps you. When you get bigger than four people and you become too loud and too slow. If you could catch up to whomever you are chasing, they would know you are coming and you run the real risk of being ambushed. Stealth is a great ally for a tracker team and should not be disregarded. If you must have more people by policy or whatever reason, then have rest of them following as quietly as possible at a distance behind the tracking team.
What about the people who are not directly following sign, who are helping to locate the quarry? You should have one or more tracking teams ahead who can “cut sign” or look for evidence of the quarries passage. This can do a couple of things depending on how you go about it. First, by having a team work the perimeter you now have a time stamp. If the team checks an area and it’s clear. Then cutting for sign again later and discovering they have now crossed; you have a window of time how far behind you are.
Secondly if the trail is picked up by the team ahead, then you are closer to the quarry, speeding apprehension or rescuing. Third, if the teams cutting ahead are being “loud” or visible to the quarry then they could cause the quarry to slow down or stop in the case of pursuit. In the search and rescue world the direction given by the tracking team can focus on the sign cut team who hopefully will be visible to the lost and results in the rescue.
This sign cut team can become the tracking team if they pick up and confirm the track. So, the team previously on the track can either track to the location the other team picked up the sign or they can run ahead to pick up a vehicle left by the sign cut team, if any. Then going further ahead to replace the sign cut team themselves, this being called “leap frogging”.
NOTE: We don’t wait to flood the area with people walking and leaving sign of their own and spoiling the tracks. Which is why the sign cut teams who are leap frogging should stick to defined areas, such as roads, trails, riverbanks, etc. Or otherwise have a plan in place to limit where they are walking.
The other way to observe an area is to go to a high place and watch, especially if the quarry is close you can set up an observation post and scan the area. This gives an early warning if anything is moving ahead. It can also provide security for the tracking team.
When the observer finds something/someone the person or team sent to investigate it should not be the team directly on the sign, unless they are very close. I would send another team or keep the trackers on the sign until they get to that location. Too often the spotters can observe another person or, especially if they are running thermal, the depth perception could be off, and the thing spotted is on another hill. Too much time is lost trying to confirm and having to go back if wrong. Keep your trackers on sign if possible and utilize other manpower to investigate anything the observers find.
If you have a good direction of the quarry and you know the terrain you are working. You can find a pinch point, funnel, or an area where they are likely to be headed and set up to capture, or kill in war time, them. This is quite exciting if you have the patience to wait and is very effective.
Typically, if someone is being pursued by trackers, they are an individual or small group who are trying to get away. This usually means a car or some other vehicle who will pick up the quarry and try to take them away. Having a team who can either shut the road down or do criminal profiling of driving behavior is important. This is the approach most often taken by law enforcement. They don’t have the skills or experience to run a tracking operation but are well versed in vehicle patrols.
An approach of this type requires you to have a fair number of people available. In best case scenario the people you have would be able to do all the different tasks and jump from one thing to another as the situation dictates. It does rely on the different moving parts being able to talk to each other and having radios or some other group communication would be vital to this model’s success. Lastly if you have a good capable group of people, it doesn’t need one person in charge. Like any other environment a well-oiled machine will work together. If the machine isn’t running smoothly or isn’t as experienced, then one of the players will have to take charge and coordinate everyone.
Using a team approach can increase success and decrease the time it takes to locate the quarry. An uncoordinated approach will result in the area being flooded with people and often making the task harder.
Happy tracking.
-Joseph
Outpost 95 