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.

To download and read, please click here

Born in the USA, Kersey has been a member of our team since 2008. She is involved with research, planning, Tracker Training and Assessments and other aspects of our courses, as well as bringing out international student groups on short, (2 week) study-abroad courses with her company Original Wisdom. She is a FGASA Professional trails guide, who has been visiting, instructing and volunteering since 2008 with Nature Guide Training.

She is a highly qualified tracker, studying this skill on many continents. She is the first, and currently only, female Senior Tracker in the world (since 2016), and is a Track and Sign Assessor here in Southern Africa (since 2014), and a Trailing Assessor in North America and Europe (since 2018). She earned a Ph.D. focusing on trackers with the University of Connecticut (Dec. 2020), where she was also an award-winning teacher (Apr 2012).

In 2020, Kersey co-authored with Lee, The Tracker Mentoring Manual – Introduction to Tracking, which guides students through a series of 30 Assignments and 10 Daily Routines to teach them the process of tracking, anywhere. There is an associated website with online and correspondence courses that students can participate in at TrackerMentoring.com.

Jens is our resident reptile and first aid specialist, who has been working with our team for more than seven years now. He has authored a book on reptiles (Girdled Lizards and their Relatives 2014) and is currently busy with several more. He is a fun, outgoing member of our full time team, who has lots to share with our students. Jens is also a FGASA field guide, with many years in the field guiding with both Bushveld animals and Marine turtles in Natal.

He was born in Germany and speaks German and English.

Brenden is a highly qualified Trails guide based in the Kruger National Park. He is a level 3 guide on the FGASA system and an accomplished man-tracker who specialises in the training of Anti-poaching soldiers across the country.

He has a Master’s Degree in Botany and is an expert on dangerous game. He works with us part time in our courses across the Kruger region. He was born in South Africa and lives in Hoedspruit, and speaks English and Afrikaans.

Tim is a Doctor of Archaeology, who obtained his degree from Oxford in 2014. He often lectures and participates in courses and tours with Nature Guide Training and has been a part time member of the team since 2011. He is a full time researcher at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and co-authored a book on Southern African Rock Art with Lee Gutteridge.

Wayne Te Brake is a Wilderness Guide with 12 years experience in the Nature Conservation and Field Guiding industry.

He has a degree in Nature Conservation and has obtained the FGASA (Field Guides Association of Southern Africa) Level 3 Advanced Trails Guide and SKS Birding. In addition, he is a registered National and FGASA assessor. He has guided and trained field guides throughout Southern Africa. Currently the majority of his time is spent leading Back-Pack trails in the Kruger National Park, guiding private groups in the surrounding Private Game Reserves and training aspiring Trails Guides.

Wayne is particularly interested in tracking and botany and is especially passionate about wilderness, making a distinction between game-viewing experiences as opposed to true Wilderness experiences.

Phillip is our apprentice at Nature Guide Training, who completed his level 1 with us in early 2020. He is an NQF2 guide with a specialist birding qualification (Core and Savannah Biome) as well as an Apprentice Trails Guide. He has a passion for birds and his friendly open demeanor has made him a very valuable part of our team. He hails from the mountain town of Dullstroom, in Mpumalanga, where he grew up.