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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I know these tracks. These are white miners. Ten mules, two outriders. One of the outriders is fat. The other one has yellow hair. He dyes it."''
|'''Native American Scout archetype''', ''[[Deadlands]]''}}
So you have a character in the group who is nature-savvy. Maybe he or she is an [[Our Elves Are Better|Elf]] or [[Magical Native American]] or just some gruff [[Wild Man]] or [[Ranger]]-type. One way to establish that character as being [[Badass]] and not the [[Granola Girl]], is to show him to be a good tracker. Of course, any moron can follow footprints in the mud. Since our character is so good, he'll not only be able to tell you how many people were there, but any of the following also:
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{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* Subverted in a car commercial where a hiker, hearing a car coming, demonstrates his scary-competency in tracking to his friends by putting his ear to the ground and identifying the approaching vehicle as a high-end sports car. The car that eventually passes by isn't a sports car, of course, but the point of the commercial was supposed to be that you shouldn't be able to tell the difference.
* A British car commercial had a tribesman observing vibrations and identifying the animals causing them from a great distance. He then spots a car passing in the distance and seems to think it must be a ghost because it's so quiet that nothing is vibrating.
* Another series of car commercials had random people placing their ears on the ground and managing to identify the brand, model, various specifications ''and even the color'' of the car.
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Either a case of terrifying competency or overlooked logic: in the ''[[Samurai 7]]'' anime, Kyuzo puts his ear to the ground and can hear the bandits approaching. Only one problem: the Nobuseri are giant mecha. That fly.
* [[Inuyasha]] has a preternatural sense of smell, keener even than Shippo's, though not as keen as his older brother Sesshomaru. It's still keen enough to track someone by scent ''while running'', detect the clash of magical auras, and detect Kagome's arrival through a trans-temporal portal from at least half a mile away.
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* Especially early on in the series, Gon from ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' was talented at tracking, being able to locate shapeshifting foxes who specialized in stealth in the middle of a dense forest at night.
* Shampoo from ''[[Ranma ½]]'' managed to track Ranma for over a thousand miles, across at least two countries, and the Sea Of Japan. To make this even more impressive, at the time she barely knew his name and only knew of his [[Attractive Bent Gender|female form]], which meant she could only follow him when he was in one form, completely losing him whenever he returned to normal.
* In ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' Mayaa found his way to
== Comic Books ==
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** Turns out to be true in a later storyline.
{{quote|'''Catman''':"You'll run. You'll hide. And in the dark... I will find you."{{spoiler|(and he does find them)}}}}
* The original roster of the third incarnation of ''[[X-Force]]'' consisted of [[Wolverine]], [[Opposite
* Sabretooth and Wolverine are both considered to be excellent trackers, even without their heightened senses.
== Film ==
* Aragorn does this in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Two Towers]]'' (book and film), first tracking the Uruk-hai then later explaining how Merry and Pippin escaped them during a battle. That later example is interesting because it takes him no effort to find the traces of both hobbits over a battlefield. To be fair, Aragorn discovers the footprints by accident while mourning them. Everything else he does after he chances upon them falls under this trope though.
** Far more realistic in the book, where Aragorn is only able to notice signs because the hobbits had dropped their cloak-clasp as a sign on the way before they escaped, and had been carried away from where the main battle was. Even then, Aragorn is only able to deduce fairly basic information from the signs, and outright admits that a lot of what he sees doesn't make sense unless he acknowledges that a few pertinent facts will have taken place elsewhere, or will otherwise have left no visible signs. Nevertheless, he does have impressive tracking skills, which is justified by having been raised and lived as a Ranger of the wilds of Eriador. He does mention having limits, being unwilling to continue the chase across the plains of Rohan at night, as the trail is harder to see compared to when they were in the forest and the risk of losing it in the dark is too great. Also the only reason he finds Pippin's lorien leaf clasp in the book is because Pippin ran from the Orcs to drop it away from them, so the clasp wouldn't be trampled and hidden. In the movie, Aragorn finds the clasp after it's been trampled and buried in the ground. At another point, he's completely baffled by what he sees, because he's never encountered Ent-tracks before.
** The original novel also mentions how he tracked down and captured Gollum, one of his most impressive feats. It had been decades since the only solid clue of Gollum's location had gone cold!
* Prince Humperdinck does it on the location of the duel between Inigo Montoya and the Man in Black in ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', noting that both men were expert swordsmen based solely on their footwork. He does it again on the location of the fight between the Man in Black and Fezzik. And then again at the Battle of Wits site, where he is able to identify the colorless, odorless poison as iocaine powder by ''smell'', though this one was intended as a bit of a joke for observant audience members.
** According to the book version, Humperdinck actually ''can'' track a falcon on a cloudy day.
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** When the FBI agent sarcastically asks how much change was in the man's pockets, the sheriff gives that information too. Given that Crow Horse is a [[Deadpan Snarker]], one assumes that he's joking.
* In ''[[Rabbit Proof Fence]]'', the 'school' employs an Australian Aboriginal tracker Moodoo. When the girls run away, they do what they can to conceal their tracks, yet he manages to follow them. (It's implied that he deliberately lets them get away from him.) The DVD commentary reveals that the ''actor'' who played the tracker could do the same thing.
* Etain (Olga Kurylenko) in ''[[Centurion]]''. She tracks the Romans relentlessly through the whole movie, even after they use every trick they know, including riding river rapids. One of the Romans remarks, each time, "How does she ''do'' that?"
* In ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'', Butch and Sundance are pursued relentlessly by a group specially outfitted to hunt them down and bring them in, dead or alive. The group counts Lord Baltimore, a famous Indian tracker, among its members. Lord Baltimore is talented enough to track Butch and Sundance across stone cliffs, much to the pair amazement. They only escape the group by {{spoiler|jumping off a high cliff into a river}}, made doubly frightening for {{spoiler|Sundance because he can't swim.}}
* In ''[[Rango]]'', [[The Quiet One|Rango's deputy Wounded Bird]] can ''[[The Nose Knows|smell]]'' blindess. Or an enlarged prostate.
* In the [[Cyberpunk]] movie ''Circuitry Man'', there are these two cops who keep showing up in pursuit of the main characters, all the way across the U.S. They're clearly rather
* Part of the advertising for ''
* The title character of Dersu Uzala (subject of a book and two movies) is a real-life hunter and super-tracker in the Russian far east.▼
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* One of the guardsmen in [[David Gemmell]]'s book ''[[Literature/Legend|Legend]]'' does this. Basically he retells how a fight happened, move by move, just from the footprints in an alleyway.
** Well, that and the bodies scattered around. I imagine that makes it somewhat easier.
* Many of the Tanith First-And-Only from the ''[[Warhammer
** Mkoll is a Scarily Competent Tracker ''even to the other Ghosts''. He's also a complete [[Badass]].
*** Let us not forget the scene in Sabbat Martyr, where Mkoll {{spoiler|Essentially has a 'Scarily Competent Tracker' CONTEST with a Dark Eldar. Mkoll WINS.}}
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** In
** Vimes
** Gaspode might also qualify in ''[[The Fifth Elephant]]'', although admittedly, he ''is'' a dog.
*** Dog or not, his highly-detailed description of Ginger (as discerned by smell alone) from ''[[
** Granny Weatherwax parodies this trope in ''[[
* In the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'', we're treated to Lord Gareth Bryne, who's grandfather allegedly could track a shadow over a river. While the grandfather never actually comes on-screen, the Lord manages to track Suian and Leane across at least half a continent, only because Leane insisted that they ask for directions barely a quarter of the way there. When he successfully finds them, a random soldier informs the women that he has arrived, which is the cue for Suian's priceless and dumbfounded reaction.
** There was the line about the old soldier who could track yesterday's wind across stone by moonlight. Although it's obviously hyperbolic.
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* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[Beyond the Black River]]", the Pict spies are easily able to track Conan and his company.
* Famous Shoes the Kickapoo tracker in the ''[[Lonesome Dove]]'' series can track pretty much anyone, anywhere. He can also walk further and faster than you can ride your horse.
* In the [[Belisarius Series]] the title character has Abbu, a bedouin chief who is doing mercenary service as a scout with the Roman Army.
** Rana Sanga has a Pathan who does this for him. In his case Rana Sanga captured him in battle. The Pathan serves him on the grounds that any warrior great enough to capture him must be worth serving.
*** The fact that Belisarius is able to fool the Pathans tracking him and escape, makes him an instant legend among them.
* Muldoon shows himself to be one in ''[[Jurassic Park]]''. He finds the crashed tour car after the T-Rex kicked it, the last known place where Tim and Lex were known to be. After finding Tim’s watch left behind, he notices that while the face is cracked, the band is uninjured, deducing that given the toughness of watch face crystals, it could have only broken during the attack, but the uninjured band means that the T-rex didn’t tear it off the kid. So Tim must have taken off the broken watch after the attack, meaning he survived.
** The paragraph before, though, Muldoon subverts this. He remarks that it’s usually very difficult to track anything after an animal attack, and while most people assume the aftermath of such encounters are filled with blood and gore, the truth is that there’s usually nothing, since a predator can easily kill a child just by shaking them to snap their neck, making it look to the detectives as though the child just walked out.
* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' has James, who at least justifies his skills by having "can track you anywhere" as his vampiric gift.
* The titular rangers from [[Ranger's Apprentice]] can track amazingly well - even on horseback.
* Lew Wetzel (a/k/a "Deathwind") and Jonathan Zane in Zane Grey's ''The Last Trail.''
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' had an
* The ''[[Redwall]]'' books have a number of these. One in ''Triss'' is even able to keep tracking her target even after they go through a river by picking out broken reeds that they left in their path.
▲*
* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' has Masters of Tracking, who can follow the quarry's footsteps, movement for movement. Which e.g. allows to use transport, but the tracker may drive only if quarry drives. Also, the quarry feels the presence (symptoms range from mild headache to fatal in extreme cases). And this normally works only if the quarry is alive. The trackers, even real masters, become obsessed with the chase and fairly oblivious to surroundings, which makes them very vulnerable to ambush by anyone else, unless accompanied by a bodyguard (Lesser Secret Investigations Force lost their first Masters of Tracking this way).
** [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Ghosts]] see a glowing line (height and other parameters being individual) trailing after any living human, so if a ghost wants to follow someone, there's no way to shake it off. Which is part of the reason why the provincial unit of Secret Investigations composed entirely of ghosts did consistently show the best performance, despite having to oversee the biggest and busiest trade port in the kingdom.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Bra'tac and Teal'c in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' sometimes do this, most notably in "Maternal Instinct". O'Neill, [[Deadpan Snarker|being]] [[Genre Savvy|O'Neill]], lampshades it. Bra'tac is not amused.
** [[Stargate Atlantis|Ronon Dex]] from the spinoff show has managed this a few times. Once he didn't even ''look at the ground.'' That could have been bad blocking, however.
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* Benton Fraser in ''[[Due South]]'', taking the stereotype of all Mounties well past the point of parody. This usually involves whatever the best [[Gross Out]] is, such as [[Fingertip Drug Analysis|licking something horrible]] and [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer|diving into the sewers]].
* The Huntsman ([[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|natch!]]) does this in ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'': after emerging from the Dwarf mines, he puts his ear to a boulder and is able to hear through the rock (complete with cool shrieking hawk sound-effects) all the way to the Royal Estate where Virginia and Tony are walking. Either something they say is indicative of their location, or he can tell how far the sound traveled, because he's able to know exactly where they are.
* ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]'' has Lord Bowler. "Dirt talks to me, Brisco."
** And Brisco himself.
{{quote|'''Brisco''': (studies tracks from the saddle
''Comet whinnies''
'''Brisco''': No, I don't know why they left the road. }}
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{{quote|'''Hammond:''' *spotting the tire impressions in the mud* I can see tracks! I'm using my tracking skills; I'm not even using the hounds. *walks into a low branch* Ow, a tree!}}
* Ian Edgerton, from ''[[Numb3rs]].''
* The black tracker Fuller uses to pursue the bushrangers in the second episode of the ''[[Wild Boys]]''. Despite the bushrangers uses every trick they know to lose him (riding along a creek, etc), he stays right on their tail. And he isn't fooled by the pig caracass they blow up in an attempt to fake their deaths either.
* One episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' had an Apache tracker come in to consult on a case that had Native American themes. The man was able to deduce an insane amount of detail, including seeing from Hotch's footprints that he wore a gun on one ankle, because his footsteps were slightly deeper on that side.
* Despite the show's title, the protagonist of ''[[Tracker]]'' is ''not'' one of these, although he still has a number of superhuman abilities due to the fact that he's an alien [[Energy Being]] taking human form. In one episode, though, he meets an elderly Native American named Wahota Keene (played by [[Don Francks]]) whose son was killed by one of the escaped alien convicts Cole is tracking. Keene immediately recognizes his son's killer by simply looking at him and then shows remarkable skill at tracking his movements in the woods. Cole does find that he likes Keene, given that they're both trackers.
* Hawk, the Native American deputy, can do this in ''[[Twin Peaks]]''. However at one point he leads everybody to the wrong cabin in the woods.
== Newspaper Comics ==
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*** The best part about that comic was the dropped spear nearby; indicating that his "friend" already spotted the cavalry and high-tailed it out of there without telling him.
* This troper recalls a cartoon from a magazine(?) with the traditional Indian with his ear to the ground, reeling off the usual list of facts ("one of the horses is lame", etc.), concluding with "A satellite is passing over their position."
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Dungeons
== Video Games ==
* Apparently {{spoiler|Raiden}} turned into one in between ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''s 2 and 4 {{spoiler|in addition to having [[Took a Level
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the hunter class can track things... which basically means they have radar. Confusingly they can only track one type of monster at a time: if they're tracking humanoids, they won't be able to track beasts.
** [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Druids in cat form]] can track humanoids.
** Certain elixirs and [[Health Food|food items]] grant the ability to track specific creature types.
** Through a certain combination of class, profession choice, and quests, it is possible to be able to track ''everything'' in the game. This is only possible if you roll a Hunter (Track Beasts, Humanoids, Dragonkin, etc, etc) who is an Herbalist (Track Herbs) and a Miner (Track Minerals), and who has also managed to fish up a "Weatherbeaten Journal" which, upon reading, allows you to Track Fish.
* Similar to ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', in ''[[
* Geralt can be this a few times in ''[[The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings|The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings]]'' as long as he swigs the right potion that heightens his awareness.
* Ezio Auditore is the most prominent one in the ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' series - [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by his genetic Eagle Vision/Sense ability.
== Web Comics ==
* Subverted by Belkar in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', who as a ranger is supposed to be a scary-accurate tracker (and was hired as one) but actually has no skill at all at tracking - instead,
▲* Subverted by Belkar in ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', who as a ranger is supposed to be a scary-accurate tracker (and was hired as one) but actually has no skill at all at tracking, and has on more than one occasion forgotten it's what he was supposed to be doing.
** Well, actually Belkar seems to have some tracking ability, but he is too stupid and uncaring to use it....until Roy points out (falsely) that the person Roy wants him to track has insulted Belkar.
{{quote|'''Belkar:''' "Oh, that's it! I'm gonna track them down and kill their whole family!"}}
*** The next strip, however, Belkar forgets that he was tracking anybody.
* Parodied early in ''[[8-Bit Theater
▲* Parodied early in ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)]]'', Fighter attempts to find their way out of the forest by following tracks. When asked to describe the ones who made these tracks, [[Winnie the Pooh|he gives perfect descriptions of himself and Black Mage.]]
* [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] by ''[[Abstruse Goose]]'' [http://abstrusegoose.com/384 here].
*
== Western Animation ==
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* The Map of ''[[Dora the Explorer]]'' knows where everything is [[Fridge Logic|even before it gets there]].
** May be a [[Justified Trope]] in that it's, you know, a map.
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Big Trope Hunting]]
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