Tom Brown's Science and Art of Tracking

Tom is charismatic, but he doesn't use it to make friends and converts. He uses it to help the reader make the transition from a shell-shocked city-dweller to someone who can feel safe to explore the mysteries of the untamed wild. If you already feel comfortable with nature, Tom, in this book and his teachings, will then help you to move from seeing just big things, to seeing very small details. Some people, such as the earlier reviewer might have had great difficulty with this. After all, not everyone can fathom the benefit that comes from getting down in the grass and watching how beetles duke it out.

As for the skeptic who did not believe that a mouse could be tracked across gravel: I experienced it. Something inside me is changed for ever now that it has entered my direct awareness that such a thing is possible. It leaves me open to what else is possible. The moments leading up to 'tracking the mouse across gravel' were well-orchestrated. We were tracking when the sun was at the most optimal point in the sky. We had started way down the trail near Tom's barn, and he would write details on pointed popsicle sticks and place them with the point touching the back of the animals tracks. We were told to first step back, go wide angle vision while maintaining awareness on the track area, and to just try to see what it was that Tom saw. I can't say this is easy for anyone to do, to try to see as if someone else (but interestingly, this is also necessary for one to become compassionate, so you see his teachings were not simply for the sake of tracking, but for being a finer kind of person.) I continued down many feet of trail, viewing track from rabbit, fox, skunk and even a Bobcat. This continued to the end of the dirt trail right to the edge of his gravel driveway. The mind was now so focussed from finely attuning to all the previous tracks, the detail, and the 'event' that it recorded, so that when I reached the last popsicle stick, the words on it literally sprung into my mind like an eruption, because I had been waiting for this very moment since the first day when he made the promise that we would be able to track a mouse across a gravel path. At that point, I was deely aware of a shift in my awareness. I did not need to squint, or look hard despite the countless spaces between the large pieces of rock. Clear as day there were a set of tracks from a mouse going across the gravel path. I remember my heart-rate increasing and my mind becoming very still. I was, one might say, "in the present moment.", and that is what it was about.

The practice of tracking helps one to become present to what is. All around you, this very moment, there are many tracks. You are leaving many tracks. Don't let anyone feed you their negative experience. They did not have a grateful attitude and are expressing resentments. You can get this book and even if it contains a lot of information that is in his other books, you can learn something essential about yourself, and the many worlds within 'the world'. So much life and death around you now at every moment, and your eyes are towards the sky. Learn to track. Anything is fine, just learn to track something, and you will see it is not about what's 'out there.'


Try it for yourself!   May 20, 2001
virgil akers (New Jersey)
36 out of 38 found this review helpful

This is a great book for beginning trackers and nature lovers. The book shows how anyone willing to put forth a little effort to go out and practice and get some "dirt time" can learn to follow even the tiniest tracks across the most difficult surfaces. Tom uses a common sense method of tracking that examines a track in terms of "pressure releases." For example: a heavy foot displaces more "dirt" than a lighter foot, a foot traveling fast will displace more "dirt" to the rear of the foot than a foot moving slowly. By measuring the size of these pressure releases one can tell a myriad of things about the creature one is tracking: its size, its direction of travel, its speed of travel and its head position. Eventually, by studying micro-pressure releases inside the track one will also be able to tell whether the animal has a full stomach, whether it is male or female and dozens of other cool details about the animal. Tom will teach you how to see the animal as you track it. Some people seem to doubt whether the stories Tom tells are real or not. Kevin below states that there are no oak trees in Montana. This is false. The bur oak is abundant in the state of Montana and it grows up to 70 feet high sometimes. The best use of this book I feel is to use it in your everyday life. It teaches one to look at the details of life one might miss.


Buy it you'll learn and live better for it.   January 13, 2006
DctrR (Brownsville, Tx USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is a great book on three levels. 1. On the practical level it will make you a better tracker because of its simplicity and organization. 2. On the scientific level it will help you analyze and synthezise tracks because of its system for measurement and classification. 3. On the metaphorical level it will help you connect the search for the unseen in tracking to the search for the unseen in your psyche, spirit or soul. It is rare to find a manual that moves from the worldly or practical to the religious or spiritual. Buy it you'll learn and live better for it. Roberto


TRY IT FOR YOURSELF-NO TALL TALES HERE   December 1, 1999
SNEL PANSO (UNITED STATES)
21 out of 26 found this review helpful

THIS BOOK TEACHES THE BARE MINIMUM YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TRACKING. BASICALLY, EVERYTHING YOU LEARN IN TOM'S STANDARD ON TRACKING IS OUTLINED VERY NICELY IN THIS BOOK. THIS BOOK WILL NOT ONLY HELP IN YOUR AWARENESS OF ANIMAL TRACKS BUT ALSO OF EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE. IT TEACHES YOU TO LOOK CAREFULLY AT EVEN THE SMALLEST DETAILS. THIS IS THE ONLY COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO TRACKING ON THE MARKET THAT I KNOW OF. IF YOU SEE ANOTHER BOOK REFERING TO "PRESSURE RELEASES," YOU KNOW IT CAME FROM TOM BROWN JR.. SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK THAT THE DETAILS IN THIS BOOK ARE JUST TALL TALES. DO A QUICK EXPERIMENT IN YOUR GARAGE. CHECK OUT THE DUST ON THE FLOOR IN THE MORNING GET DOWN CLOSE TO THE GROUND , USE A FLASHLIGHT TO GET THE FLOOR BETWEEN YOU AND THE LIGHTSOURCE. IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY YOU WILL EASILY SEE THE TRACKS OF ALL THE LITTLE CRITTERS THAT HAVE BEEN ROAMING YOUR GARAGE AT NIGHT:MICE, BUGS,CATS ETC. MY GOODNESS, YOU'VE JUST TRACKED AN ANIMAL ACROSS SOLID ROCK. JUST ONE OF THE SIMPLE THINGS REVEALED IN A CONCISE MANNER IN THIS BOOK. NO TALL TALES HERE BELIEVE ME


Excellent.   March 21, 2007
Timothy D. Vasicek (Glenwood Spgs. CO)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is a must buy for all "Brownies" who have attended his Standard classes and had as much a hard time as I did taking notes. I went to his school in early March and my pens kept freezing up. There was Tom, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, never even shivering! This book will help complete any notes you might have missed. For new readers, this gives a good insight into just how good Tom is at what he does. Tom is the master. There is no one anywhere like him.