Survival skills

[CβL]

So I have noticed quite a few threads where survival often pops up. But what is survival? How do we do it? What should we prioritize?

So not to pretend I am an expert (I'm not), but I know a fair amount of survival skills, and I want to learn what everyone else has.

NOTE: Please do not just copy and paste from somewhere else. I can use google, and so can anyone else who reads this thread - hence use your better judgement for linking and pasting. Thank you.

So without further ado, let's begin:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all, I will use a shitty, shitty acronym which I learned from a careers seminar (of all places, hah) which I think is a good starting point.

Protect, Locate, Acquire, Navigate

This refers to the priorities you would be wise to have in a sudden emergency.

1), protect yourself, and your companions. Identify the threats.

2), locate yourself in space and time. Where are you, where should you go, where shouldn't you go.

3), acquire the resources you need. Water, food, clothing, etc. It's not easy to know what you need, and what you don't. Don't trivialize this one. Your equipment is often a life or death decision. Too much - and you can crack the ice on which you tread. Too little, and you'll freeze or starve. Depends entirely on location and situation.

4) finally, begin the navigation towards safety. Continue to evaluate the other priorities, and hopefully all will be well.

I have used this to help me focus my priorities in less serious situations. Sometimes I can find myself in a scatter-brained state, and if I remember this crappy acronym, I can generally get a better perspective on the problem.

---

I have also been focusing on learning the edible plants of New Zealand (I have read one on a Australian bush foods too, including direct translations from the local Aborigines, with stuff like [honestly] - "we bash the lizard on a rock until it dies , and then we bite its head off").

So New Zealand seems to have quite a few plants that you can eat, although much of the berries apparently taste like turpentine - so it would be wise to become used to them before you must rely on them. There seems to be food available year round (although less in winter). My university has many native plants with ID tags on them, so whenever I have time, I will look around for signs, and try and analyze the plant to learn it. When I have time, I will do the same at the closest botanic gardens too.

In general, it is a very good idea to also learn as many non-edible plants as you can as well. This will help you, as you will spend less time wondering if a plant is edible, and more time with your eyes scanning the rest of the forest.

It's also a good idea to get multiple books on plants - one is not enough. The illustrations and photos in multiple books will give you much more confidence than just one. It's like a keyhole; if you only get one look through the keyhole - you won't be able to see everything that's past the door.

If you ever find yourself lost, and you also lose your book of edible plants (very easy to do), then you will never forgive yourself for not knowing the plants that could save your life.

Edible plants is only one domain. You should also learn the medicinal, and the useful plants. In my opinion, the medicinal plants are much harder to learn. Many of the traditional uses, are quite useless and will make the situation worse. In the days gone by, there was no choice, and it felt better to do something, even if it was not better than nothing. The medicine man did not like to turn people away.

In saying that, some of the traditional cures are wondrous. For example, New Zealand hebe was brought into Europe as a cure for dysentry and diarrhea for the Maori battalions during WWII (or was it WWI?).

http://www.urticainc.com/pdfs/Ngati_Hine_tree_farming_report.pdf

•I have also found that Macropiper Excelsum (Kawakawa) seems to clean the mouth out. I have a feeling that the volatile oils kill plaque to some degree, as well as bad breath.

•Brachyglottis Repanda (Rangiora) is used as toilet or note paper. I have not used this, but I will soon...

•Bracken fern (grows like a weed), can be harvested for its rhizome, which will give a lot of starch (a la potato). It is full of fibres however, and I have read they are tough and not really edible. I would imagine that you could pound the cleaned and cut rhizomes into a paste, and then scrape off the paste.

•Pukatea (rare-ish) can be used for a strong numbing of the mouth, and cuts as well.

--I will list more plants later, these are some interesting ones from the top of my head.

Here is a video for how to get flax fibres, from which you can make your own rope:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2923072842784257434

---

Learning how to navigate is a must. I'm lacking in skills here, but:

*You can use the stars to navigate. Contrary to popular belief, the Southern cross by itself does not point South. A South-line can be found by

-Drawing a line through the long axis of the Southern Cross

-Drawing a construction line through the Pointers, then a perpendicular line through that.

-The intersection of these two lines is your south.

*You can use the sun's shadow, and then marking it on the ground, to find North. This works anywhere in the world. Here is a simple explanation of what to do:

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-True-North-Without-a-Compass

[synchromesh]

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17272&st=0

TIP: Survival is mostly about conserving energy. So if you do ever find yourself lost in the wilderness, try not to use any energy which you don't need to (especially psychologically).

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

thanks mate. People really do need to learn this stuff

[qualia]

stuff. i'm ashamed to say i have no survival skills at all. so when the apocalypse hits, i better have a gun, cos shooting someone in the face and stealing their food is the only way i'd survive atm.

[tripsis]

A good book on survival worth getting is the SAS Handbook by John Lofty Wiseman (actually a series of related books, but one is the original and all that is necessary). I've been meaning to get a copy for ages now. Had one when I was younger, but my brother took it. Lucky bastard got the edition with the 'mantraps' in it before it was banned (traps for wild animals which could be used as mantraps).

I've got a keen interest in survival skills and foraging for wild foods. Always wanted to do survival missions. There's a bush tucker guy of lives not far from here that goes out from time to time on survival missions. Might join one of his when I'm next free for a few weeks. I've got a fair knowledge base of plants I can eat around here, but this guy has been dedicated to bush survival for years and has learnt a lot from indigenous knowledge, so he doesn't just know what's edible and not like me, but understands associations in timing. E.g. when a particular plant is flowering, another is setting seed, or the crayfish are breeding, etc.. I'd love to learn more like that. Knowledge based on several interconnected observations.

[CβL]

Yeah, I must say that I do recommend that SAS handbook from J. Wiseman - I have read it and found it highly useful. I'll read it again once I think I have learned enough to analyze what's there.

In other news, I went to the botanical gardens to try and learn more of the plants I could eat. I learned a few things:

* Nikau fruits are only supposed to be edible when they're unripe (i.e. green), as they are rock hard when they're red (and ripe). In fact you could probably say they are iron hard - as the early settlers used them for ammunition when metal was running low.

So I tried to eat a few green ones, and the green flesh was slightly astringent, and slightly bitter. The actually seed, is what I think you're meant to eat. So after reasoning that the white seed is probably analogous to the white coconut flesh (as the two are both palms and distantly related) - I tried eating the white seed, and was surprised to find that indeed tasted like coconut - albeit more like half shell half flesh. So I think it might be preferable to grind these nuts up. I will investigate portable grinders that are lightweight, ultra durable and easy to clean. Maybe a simple repurposed pepper grinder will work.

Many NZ staple foods are far too hard to chew (unless you WANT to have bleeding jagged cracked-in-half teeth), such as Karaka berries [ONLY AFTER BEING COOKED FOR HOURS AND WASHED FOR HOURS], and the various rhizomes.

* Puha (Sonchus spp.) doesn't taste that bad at all. This and dandelion are two of the best leaf crops that you can eat. In fact, dandelion (make sure to only harvest BEFORE flowering, or else it's far too bitter) contains at least 3x of everything that Spinach has. Maybe it has less oxalic acid as well? I haven't checked. They are definitely worth learning to identify, as they grow so quickly and are so beneficial that I think they could provide the difference between life or death.

* Pisonia brunoniana (aka the bird-catching tree) is worth learning to identify, as I'm sure that finding a trapped bird would be well worth the 10 seconds it takes to check if you see the tree and are in a survival situation. In a somewhat reckless move, I decided to eat the unopened flowers (I thought they were unripe fruit) without toxicity information. I figured that they were fruit, and ate a whole flower (sheath and all). There was a sticky fibrous mass leftover after much chewing, and the taste was sweet and subtle. I think that this plant would probably make a great chewing gum. The maori liked to chew the gum of Brachyglottis repanda (the aforementioned toilet paper plant, which is HIGHLY poisonous) and would just hope not to swallow it, but if they did they would be violently ill. So I think I'll stick to the bird-sticky tree.

* Tetragonia tetragonioides (or Cook's spinach) tastes exactly like spinach. It's regarded as an heirloom vegetable in many parts of the world, and has a strange property in that it is not a favoured food of slugs or snails, which as any gardener will know - are just dicks. This plant is so rare, that you would be unlikely to find it. It grows on the beaches, and has a woody stem (which I guess makes it a perennial?). It tastes nice, and is probably far better for you than spinach. Just so you know, the original results that said spinach was full of iron were mis-transcribed from german, with an extra zero (i.e. it's not full of iron, and is bested by many plants).

IN CONCLUSION:

At this time of year (late winter, early spring) there is little to eat in the bush in the way of berries. So know all the "year round" foods, or else you will be stuffed when the things you know are out of season.

[tripsis]

This plant is so rare, that you would be unlikely to find it.

I guess you've not been to Australia then. It's very common over here. Keep in mind it contains oxalic acid, so should not be eaten raw.

[CβL]

I was not aware that it contained appreciable amounts of oxalic acid. :/

Thanks for pointing that rather important thing out.

[Evil Genius]

I´m a Survival Pro...

Edited September 1, 2011 by Evil Genius

[WoodDragon]

It's funny that you should start this thread BM. I was thinking only last night about kicking off an almost identical one on AE.

Keep your eyes peeled - I'll get around to it soon...