The last programme of the series features the San people of the Kalahari Desert. They are the last tribe on earth to use what some believe is the most ancient hunting technique of all - the Persistence Hunt. They run down their prey. This was how men hunted before they had weapons, when a hunter had nothing more than his own physical endurance with which to gain his prize.

The skills these Bushmen trackers use for hunting have been used to develop a computer interface that captures complex interpretation of tracks and signs. Ancient skills and forefront technology have been combined in such a way as to allow trackers who cannot read or write to gather and record complex information with great speed and accuracy. The name of the software - CyberTracker - reflects this partnership of old and new.

Using a sequence of screens on a hand held computer, displaying simple and easily recognisable icons, trackers are able to store data in minute detail. They record sightings, species, feeding behaviour, territorial markings, vegetation, and ecological features. The programme automatically stores this data along with a GPS fix of the location for later downloading onto a PC and detailed further analysis with mapping applications and statistical packages.

Since the mid-1990's this tool has been developed to help preserve the prehistoric Kalahari tracking techniques by giving them a vital role in the modern scientific age. The inventor, Louis Liebenberg, spent the previous ten years learning and understanding tracking under some of the best traditional trackers who still hunt with the bow-and-arrow.

CyberTracker has now found its way into conservation programmes worldwide, from deserts to the Arctic. Projects range from reintroduced wolves in the USA to the Sumatran Rhino in Borneo to the tropical forests and savannas of the Congo. Involving local communities in key areas of biodiversity, the CyberTracker combines indigenous knowledge with state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology. It also has general data gathering applications in the environmental realm. The lists of species and icons can easily be customised to match an area's needs and cater for their conservation priorities.

The developers of CyberTracker believe that it will enable the monitoring of the global ecosystem at a level of detail not previously possible. To achieve their goal the software has been released as greenware (free software that benefits conservation) in order to provide the maximum benefit to conservation.

You can find out more about CyberTracker on their website.