Louis Liebenberg's work on Kalahari San persistence hunting figured prominently in several of Pinker's books, and Science published a profile of him.

Judged as of 2024-06-18. Two parts: (1) Science published a profile of Louis Liebenberg on or before that date; (2) Liebenberg's work on Kalahari San persistence hunting/tracking is discussed prominently in several (two or more) of Pinker's books (e.g. Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Enlightenment Now, How the Mind Works). True: both hold. Mostly true: both hold but the profile appeared in a related outlet (e.g. Science's news section online) or the work is cited in only two books, or mentioned more briefly than 'prominently' suggests. Mixed: only one of the two parts holds. Mostly false: Liebenberg's work is cited only briefly in a single Pinker book and there is no Science profile, or the profile is about something else. False: neither part holds.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Sunday Science: Signs of Science Portside (reprint of a Science Magazine article by Dimitri Selibas) · 16 June 2024

   “But growing up in Cape Town, he became fascinated by the San peoples of the Kalahari, renowned for their tracking skills.”

2. E2 Sunday Science: Signs of Science Portside (reprint of a Science Magazine article by Dimitri Selibas) · 16 June 2024

   “Science Magazine.”

3. E3 R AT I O N A L I T Y CyberTracker (host of a PDF extract of Steven Pinker's book Rationality) Own record

   “The tracking scientist Louis Liebenberg, who has worked with the San for decades, has described how they owe their survival to a scientific mindset.”

4. E4 How Hunting Shaped the Human Mind Richard Conniff (Substack) · 10 January 2026

   “It’s an idea first put forward in a 1990 book The Art of Tracking by Louis Liebenberg, based on his own experience of San hunting methods in the Kalahari Desert.”

5. E5 Sunday Science: Signs of Science Portside (reprint of a Science Magazine feature by Dimitri Selibas) · 16 June 2024

   “LAST YEAR’S RELEASE of CyberTracker marks the latest turn in Liebenberg’s eclectic and unusual career.”

6. E6 Sunday Science: Signs of Science Portside (reprint of a Science Magazine feature by Dimitri Selibas) · 16 June 2024

   “He was propelled, he says, by an “intuitive gut feeling” that tracking—which involves using observations to form hypotheses about animal behavior—helped lay the foundations of modern science.”

7. E7 Rationality | Penguin Random House Retail Penguin Random House Retail

   “The tracking scientist Louis Liebenberg, who has worked with the San for decades, has described how they owe their survival to a scientific mindset.”

8. E8 Notes on Tracking and Trapping: Examples of hunter-gatherer ingenuity stevenpinker.com (hosted PDF by Louis Liebenberg) Own record

   “For a book on Rationality it may be a good example of how Kalahari hunter-gatherers acted in a rational way to conserve their animal and plant resources.”

The first part holds. Portside's reprint dated 2024-06-16 is credited to Science Magazine and profiles Louis Liebenberg's career, his work with the Kalahari San and his idea that tracking helped lay the foundations of science [E1, E2, E5, E6]. That puts the Science profile on or before 2024-06-18. For the second part, the evidence shows Liebenberg's San tracking work discussed in one Pinker book, Rationality [E3, E7, E8]. No item mentions Liebenberg in any other Pinker book, and that silence does not show the other books leave him out. So the evidence does not settle whether 'several books' holds, and the outcome could be anywhere from true to mixed.