This CyberTracker software has helped Kalahari Bushmen record their observations of animals and preserve their animal-tracking traditions. It's also being used for scientific research, education, farming, and disaster relief: CallToEarth PerpetualPlanet
Scientists have become adept at tracking wildlife remotely. Take the Icarus global monitoring system, for example. Soon data ranging from an animal's location to its skin temperature will be easily available thanks to tiny wearable transmitters that send signals to an antenna on the International Space Station. But there's still something to be said for boots on the ground.
Few can claim to have a more intimate knowledge of their land and its fauna than the San trackers of the Kalahari, a large semi-arid region spanning parts of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Thousands of years of hunter-gathering expertise have been handed down from one generation to the next. It's a valuable knowledge pool that is often overlooked by science, argues Louis Liebenberg.
To survive in the Kalahari, the gemsbok -- a large antelope -- digs for water-storing plants and roots. It minimizes energy expenditure by slowing its metabolism and breathing, while special blood vessels in the brain act as a cooling mechanism.Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: The Kalahari Desert is bursting with lifeWhile desert elephants can drink up to 200 liters in a single day, they can go for several days without water while searching out an oasis.
A 2016 study tracked a different herd which migrates between the Chobe River and the Nxai Pan, in northern Botswana. The zebras make a round journey of 955 kilometers despite the fact that there are similar plains in closer proximity, suggesting to researchers a genetic or cultural reason for returning to this particular location.
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