Lee is the owner of the school. He has been involved in guiding and related industries for 25years. He started his career as an Army Tracker and has subsequently been an Anti-poacher Ranger, Head Ranger, Lodge Manager, Safaris Manager and Reserve Manager during his career.
He is one of only a handful of FGASA Scout guides in South Africa, with FGASA Level 3, and SKS qualifications in Dangerous Animals (SKS DA), Dangerous Game (SKS DG) and Wild Flowers (SKS WF) and Birding (SKS B). He is also a Paleoanthropological specialist guide and a Senior Tracker and Tracking instructor and assessor. He is a recognized Assessor and Trainer for FGASA with more than fifteen years of assessing and training experience in the field. He also completed a diploma in Game Ranch Management.
Lee conducts training for reserves across Southern Africa including:
- Entabeni
- Ulusaba
- Inyati
- Leopard Hills
- Mahali Mzuri – Kenya
- Akagera National Park – Rwanda
- Bush Camp Company – South Luangwa
- …and many more.
He has guided and managed camps and reserves in the Kruger Park, Sabi Sands, Zambia, Waterberg, Zimbabwe and Botswana and has a wealth of experience to share. He is an avid wildlife photographer and has a great passion for the smaller and more overlooked aspects of the bush and wildlife. He has a unique way of getting even the most hard to comprehend aspects across to all of his students and his enthusiasm is infectious.
He is a passionate trainer and loves what he is doing!
Lee has authored 6 books so far including:
South African Bushveld, A Field Guide From The Waterberg
Author: Gutteridge
Published: 2008
This book was written over a period of four years, after a member of Lee’s team, Deirdre Opie, was approached by Southbound publishers at a marketing show in Johannesburg. She referred them on to Lee and the rest is, as they say, history. Running a Nature Guide Training School full time meant that this was a night time job, but eventually it was done. It is probably the most detailed book on the Waterberg Region’s fauna and flora to date, based on the authors decade of experience in the area, with hundreds of species described, and thousands of pictures from Lee’s extensive library, and those of all of his friends!
Okavango Field Guide
Authors: Gutteridge and Reumerman
Published: 2010
This book was suggested by Chris Cocks from Southbound, as this special region is one of the most exciting wildlife areas on earth. Lee, who only lived in the Okavango for a few years, soon conscripted long-time friend Tony Reumerman to assist as an Okavango expert, and they began a two year journey to publish this seminal guide to the Delta. Map Ives provided an incredible introduction to Delta ecology, based on his thirty years of immersion in the subject. This turned out to be a real success, and is an 800 page reference material to an absolute safari-mecca.
Bushman Rock Art
Authors: Forssman and Gutteridge
Published: 2011
This book was Lee’s idea, after a visit to a rock art shelter with friend and archaeologist Dr Tim Forssman. After returning from the cave, high in the Waterberg Mountains, the idea was born. Tim’s extensive work for his Doctorate on the Kalahari Bushmen and their stone tools was a good foundation, and after a couple of fun years crawling around in caves, climbing to near-inaccessible ledges, and visiting some of the wildest places in Southern Africa a new book was born. Amazing research papers by many of the doyenne’s of rock art were used as base-line references, and Lee and Tim spent a lot of time interpreting the scientific works into a highly usable and friendly text, describing the art of these amazing people, and what these disappearing panels of art actually mean.
South African Bushveld – including the Kruger Lowveld
Author: Gutteridge
Published: 2012
This book is a complete rewrite of the Waterberg Bushveld, and was greatly expanded with at least 600 more species of bird, mammals, tree, wild flower, reptile, insect, fungus and grass. The focus was to encompass the entire Bushveld region, including the northern and eastern parts of South Africa, and its success followed the complete selling out of the Waterberg book. Vastly improved images, especially of birds, was largely thanks to Adam Riley and many other friends, who kindly shared their archives. This was an additional four years of work, amassing information and processing and sourcing images!
Southern African Mammals And Their Tracks And Signs
Authors: Gutteridge and Liebenberg
Published: 2013
This book was authored by Lee, in conjunction with Louis Liebenberg, a well-known Southern African wildlife tracker and author. Louis has spent the last 35 years learning tracking from the Kalahari Bushmen, and developed the Cybertracker evaluation system and non-profit organisation. Tracking has long been one of Lee’s greatest passions, and he started his bush career in 1992 when he became a tracker for the South African Army, and the opportunity to start a writing a series of tracking works for the region was too good to miss. Jacana Media published this book, and we are now poised to publish the second book in the series later this year – ‘Tracks and Signs of the Invertebrates of Southern Africa ‘- a pioneering work for the region, as no one here has yet attempted to tackle this subject.
The Invertebrates of Southern Africa and their tracks and signs
Author: Gutteridge
Published: 2017
This is the very first book in Southern Africa focussing specifically on the tracks and traces of these amazing micro-fauna. Four and a half years of research has culminated in this fascinating book, a must for every nature-lovers library. From the trail of an antlion, to the pupal case of an African monarch, there is a surprise on every page! There is also a description of the natural history of many of the species, which will add to your understanding of this tiny world about our feet.
Tracking in the micro-world
Author: Lee Gutteridge
Published: 2018
In this first article on the insect and other invertebrate life of Hoedspruit area, we are going to look into some of the incredible signs and interactions between these creatures which I describe in my book. The invertebrates of Southern Africa & their Tracks and Signs.