Western Tracking Institute was founded in 2007 by Barry Martin and is based out of San Diego, California.
What is wildlife tracking?
When we use the term wildlife tracking we are referring to the ancient skill of recognizing animal footprints and sign such as browse on vegetation, beds, territorial scrapes, etc. We also contribute to projects involving tracking wildlife through radio telemetry.
Why use wildlife tracking?
Wildlife Tracking is an extremely efficient, reliable and non-invasive means of gathering data. A person skilled in animal tracking makes observations useful to science that the untrained eye misses. By training more people in this skill set we gain invaluable assets in the effort to monitor wildlife occurrence and population changes over time.
Why do trackers need to be certified?
As with any observation-based data collection, there is a huge opportunity for inaccuracy. We use the tracker evaluation process developed for data collection in South Africa (cybertracker.org) that is now being used all over North America (wildlifetrackers.com). By using this evaluation system we can greatly raise accuracy levels of track and sign interpretation. To be a reliable collector of data via track and sign interpretation we recommend a minimum certification of Track and Sign 3.
At Western Tracking Institute, we offer three services:
A portion of WTI profits go toward the funding of conservation and research.
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