Editor's Note: (Call to Earth is a CNN initiative in partnership with Rolex. Louis Liebenberg is a Rolex Laureate.)
(CNN) 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. For over 20 years, Liebenberg, an associate of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, has been connecting indigenous San groups in Namibia with scientists all over the world. And long before the advent of social media, he did it with an app.
As executive director of CyberTracker Conservation, the South African developed a piece of free software that allows animal trackers in the Kalahari to share tracking insights and create better data on biodiversity. In return, trackers are paid for their work, turning a way of life into a vocation.
San trackers in the Kalahari discussing animal prints.
"We've got this enormous wealth of expertise and knowledge locked up in indigenous trackers, and yet they cannot communicate that knowledge and their observations to the scientific community," Liebenberg tells CNN.
Find out more about Call to Earth and the extraordinary people working for a more sustainable future
"(They) have, for a number of reasons, been marginalized," he explains. "Indigenous communities ... have been disempowered and lost their land by colonial powers that have denied them citizenship, but also through scientific prejudice -- the idea that indigenous communities don't do 'real' science."
"Professional scientists have as much to learn from indigenous trackers as indigenous trackers have to gain by working with professional scientists," he adds.
100,000 years of experience
Trackers can often record species other methods can't. Reconnaissance from an airplane can pick up large animals, but not smaller species. And if a species lives in woodland, like the kudu -- a kind of antelope -- it won't be spotted from a plane.
In the Kalahari, members of the San carry smartphones, using an icon-based interface to input what they find, including where they have heard and seen wildlife, as well as sightings of animal tracks and feces, based on group consensus.
The Kalahari Desert is bursting with life
The Kalahari Desert spans the borders of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. During the summer, temperatures soar to 40°C (104°F) but in winter, it can drop below freezing. Despite the harsh conditions, many animals have adapted to live there.
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.
While desert elephants can drink up to
200 liters (52 gallons) in a single day, they can go for several days without water while searching out an oasis. Ranging across Namibia and the Kalahari Desert, these elephants have unusually large feet: it is thought this adaptation stops them sinking into the sand as they walk hundreds of kilometers in search of water. The herds are led by matriarchs which remember the locations of watering holes and underground water pools that are key to the elephants' survival.
Competition for food is fierce in the Kalahari, and being at the top of the food chain doesn't make it any easier for cheetahs. A
2017 study found Kalahari cheetahs are lighter on average than cheetahs in other parts of Africa. Males feast mostly on young antelope, while female cheetahs opt for smaller mammals such as hare. Perhaps most surprisingly, the study found that they rarely consume water. Two female cheetahs, which were tracked for a month, were not seen drinking once.
While they may look cute, painted dogs -- also known as the Cape hunting dog, or African wild dog -- can run at speeds up to 65 kilometers per hour (41mph) and are ruthless hunters. The open terrain of the Kalahari is ideal for this speedy predator, enabling packs to hunt large prey including wildebeest and gazelle. An endangered species, the painted dog is particularly vulnerable to habitat loss.
While their signature feather crown and slender legs give these birds a regal air, the secretary bird is more mobster than monarch. Hunting reptiles, amphibians and insects, it stomps larger prey to death before consuming them whole. Found largely in the northern part of the Kalahari near watering holes on open plains, the four-foot-tall birds can easily spot a potential meal. Uniquely for a bird of prey,
they hunt only on the ground.
Like the desert-adapted cheetahs, lions in the Kalahari hunt expansive territories in small groups, to maximize their chances of a hearty meal. While gemsbok is their favored prey, they sometimes eat smaller animals such as porcupines and foxes. Kalahari lion manes are darker than the typical yellow-orange shade found on lions in the Serengeti.
While the common saying is an elephant never forgets, research suggests it's zebras that have a super memory. A
2011 study examined the migration patterns of zebras, and found that after fences were removed, herds resumed a migration route in the northern part of the Kalahari Basin, which hadn't been trekked in 50 years.
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 (593 miles) 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.
Once a common sight across the region, black rhino numbers have declined significantly in the past 50 years. They are
critically endangered although conservation efforts have led to a small increase in their numbers in recent years. Despite the two horns perched on its nose, the black rhino is a relatively docile creature and in addition to poaching, is vulnerable to attack by lions and hyenas.
Meerkats live in groups -- called gangs or mobs -- of up to 50. Their underground burrows allow them to survive the harsh desert conditions and stay cool in the heat. A designated "sentry" watches out for predators while the group forages for food -- anything from berries to bugs -- and warns the group of incoming danger with a piercing warning call.
The cape pangolin, also known as Temminck's pangolin or the ground pangolin, forages for ants and termites among the red sand of the Kalahari Desert. This nocturnal creature is the world's only mammal clad entirely in scales, which are designed to protect the animal from predators when it rolls into a ball. Although they are made from keratin -- the same substance found in human hair and nails -- pangolin scales have been in high demand for use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), threatening the
pangolin's future.
Also known as Verreaux's eagle owl, these nocturnal hunters will eat just about anything they can get their talons on. Scanning the low grass of the savannah, the owls pick up reptiles, insects, small mammals, and even other birds and owls for dinner. While cannibalism makes them far from cuddly creatures, they do have a romantic side:
researchers believe these monogamous birds mate for life and stay in small family units to raise their young.
A carnivorous predator that lives and hunts in a large pack called a clan, the brown hyena does not migrate like many other desert animals, but settles in one place, from where it roams up to 38 kilometers (24 miles) each night to hunt. In recent years, their
populations have declined due to poaching, traps and hunting.
Also known as the spiral-horned antelope, kudu have long been hunted by humans for their intricate corkscrew horns. They prefer the tree-covered bush of the northern Kalahari, as open plains leave them vulnerable to predators like cheetahs, hyenas, and hunting dogs. Their white-striped coat helps them to camouflage in the bush, while they enjoy shade from the midday sun.
The system is inclusive of non-literate people and, as Liebenberg points out, is quicker than text-based logging. Species and geolocation data are uploaded to a solar-powered laptop by trackers and sent to Liebenberg. The trackers are paid in return.
RELATED: Google-backed project is collecting millions of wildlife camera-trap images
Trackers own the data and can share it with whomever they wish in the scientific community; any scientific paper based on their data is therefore co-authored by the trackers, says Liebenberg.
By monetizing tracking skills, it sustains them. Tracking in the Kalahari has existed for more than 100,000 years, Liebenberg estimates, but when he conducted a survey of the nearly 9,000 square kilometer Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia in 2018, there were only 15 active bow and arrow hunters, down from 37 in 2016.
San trackers in Namibia input findings into the CyberTracker app.
San tracker Dam Debe is 45 years old and has been tracking in the Kalahari since before he was a teenager. "It feels good to have my data published," he tells CNN.
"CyberTracker has improved my life," he adds. "The money I receive is helping me to support my children to go to school and supporting them to buy clothes."
School is important for the next generation, but so are bush skills, Dam says. "If we leave our culture, then it will fall down," he argues.
"Purely from a cultural heritage point of view, I think it is essential that we develop a program that will keep these skills alive," Liebenberg says.
Through CyberTracker's Master Tracker certification scheme and increased interest from younger men and women, Liebenberg says he hopes there will be more than 50 active trackers in Nyae Nyae within the next few years.
"Technological innovation is essential"
Since its initial roll out in 1997, the app has evolved and migrated far from Southern Africa. It has been downloaded more than half a million times in over 200 countries, says its creator, and has been used by indigenous trackers in Australia; for land management in Canada; PhD studies on bottlenose dolphins off New Zealand; whale monitoring in Antarctica and turtle research in the Pacific.
RELATED: Meet the women racing to save the northern white rhino from extinction
"People tend to overestimate what technology can do in the short term, (and) they tend to underestimate what technology can do in the long term," Liebenberg says. For biodiversity faced with climate change and mass extinction, he says "there's simply no quick technical fix." However, "scientific and technological innovation is absolutely essential to solve the problems that we face."
"I hope for the best, but I expect the worst," he adds. "By expecting the worst, you're motivated to actually do something about it -- and if you really do something about it, then the optimistic future can become possible."