This project enabled ‘illiterate’ animal trackers to use a PDA and GPS system to record field observations in wildlife parks. These trackers are literate in reading the tracks and signs left by animals as they moved through the park. By re-designing the interface of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) — a device designed for business executives — we created a system which the trackers could understand and use to record their observations.

This made their expertise available to the park management and scientific communities and also improved their position: a key empowerment/indigenous knowledge system.

Expert animal trackers can play an important role in providing information on the distribution and behaviour of animals and the health of the natural environment. Their abilities can provide information that is far richer than current surveillance techniques. Their profound knowledge has however frequently been overlooked by the scientific and environmental management community.  This is partly because the best trackers belong to communities with oral traditions and who cannot read or write.