#7 - Alex van den Heever on Animal Tracking: What the Ancient Skill Can Teach Us About Each Other

Alex has a fascinating story. He's a master tracker in South Africa. He started his career in 1995 at the world renowned Game Reserve called Londolozi. He has spent the last 25 years perfecting the skills of wild life tracking. He has dedicated much of his life to learning this ancient skill. He eventually qualified as one of a handful of tracker assessors, the youngest ever to achieve this feat. Over the last two decades Alex has tracked jaguars in the Amazon jungle, bears in California, grizzlies and wolves in Montana, pumas in Patagonia, and the famous black main lions of the Kalahari. Alex has an unbelievable story. We go deep into what it takes to be a master tracker, what are the skills and attributes that make someone good at this incredibly nuanced and incredibly intuitive skill that can only really be learned with deliberate practice. Alex has written two books on the topic, a best seller tracker book called the tracker manual, and a new book called Changing the Leopard's Spots, which documents his relationship with his mentor and friend, Renias Mhlongo. Alex is also the director of a tracking academy where he teaches unemployed people the traditional skills of tracking. Alex and I get deep into his journey as a tracker in the African bush and around the world. I could not have been more excited for this conversation and I honestly could not have ended up enjoying it more. Please enjoy! Are you an expert? Want to create your own online course? Start right here with my 2-week actionable email course.