Determining wind direction is an absolutely necessity when on a hunt or trail in Southern African wilderness areas. Besides being constantly aware of the wind direction, also the own relation to the sun has to be checked all the time. Only when the wind is not carrying our smell toward the game, it is possible to stalk them closely. There are animals whose hearing or sights are more acute than smell, but as a groundline, all animals should be stalked from downwind. And, any noise has to be avoided and the stalker should not be illuminated by the sun.
There are various methods to determine wind direction on the move in Southern African wilderness environments. All of them have to be very sensitive, as wind is often not directly sensible, but carries our odor fast and far enough for animals to smell.
Movement of grasses, wind on skin, or use of a lighter
The easiest method is an observation of moving grass heads. Again, these have to be very sensitive grasses, like Natal Redtop (Melinis repens), Guinea grass (Megathyrsus Maximus), or Common Fingergrass (Digitaria eriantha) – which is quite top-heavy – and others. And it has to be taken into consideration, that moving grasses are fixed on the lower point, which restricts their movement.
Another common method, especially in colder climates, is exposure of skin to the wind. Normally, someone can feel on his cheeks if the wind is blowing from this or that direction. Or a finger is wetted with spit and held into the wind. And logically, the side from where the wind blows will feel cooler. Both of these methods are not recommended for Southern African conditions. Because they are too insensitive for practical use.
Better is to use a lighter and watch the direction the flame is moving. The disadvantage of using a lighter is the possibility that the game will hear the flick of the steel wheel on the flintstone. If this short noise is acceptable, it’s a good method of determining wind direction.
Ash bag or sand
Another common method amongst Professional Hunters is to use an ash bag. They cut off an old, thin sock, fill it with wood ash from a cold fire, knot it up, and hang it on their ammunition belt. When using it, they just take it off the belt, hold it up into the air, and tip it on with a finger. It is amazing how clearly these fine ash particles show the wind movement – which in many cases is very slow and even curly. And the refill of the bag costs nothing.
An even easier method is the use of fine particles on the go. Which even does not spoil the shorts. In some very sandy areas, the sand has either a fine consistency or a grain size distribution with a high fraction of very fine particles. Such sand can be just taken from the ground, held up high, and left to fall. Depending on the amount of very fine particles, the wind direction can be determined immediately.
Scrub hare droppings for determining wind direction
My personal favorite however is a different one. Its Scrub hare (Lepus saxatilis) poo. These scrub hare droppings are omnipresent in African savannah areas. And they do not care about geology or hardness of the ground surface or whatever – they are just there. Scrub hares have the nice (for us) habit of feeding on their droppings when freshly deposited. Biologists call it ‘coprophagy’ and it serves to keep as many vitamins, minerals, and enzymes as possible back in the hare’s body. Due to this double-chewing behavior, however, scrub hare droppings contain exceptionally fine particles. Taking up a scrub hare dropping and crumbling it in the air will give a highly visible and sensitive indication of wind direction.
On the lighter side: if kids like to play in Southern African savannahs, they take such hare droppings into their mouth (no vitamins, minerals & enzymes are inside anymore) and start a scrub hare-poo distance spitting competition!
Lessons learned from determining wind direction in nature:
- When hunting or trailing in African savannah wilderness areas, someone must be constantly aware of wind direction.
- Checking wind direction on open skin (face, wetted finger) is often too insensitive.
- Better methods are opening flames of lighters, and ash bags, or throwing sand into the air.
- The best method however is crumbling scrub hare droppings for checking wind direction.
