The Pocket Outdoor Survival Guide: The Ultimate Guide for Short-Term Survival (11 page)
Read The Pocket Outdoor Survival Guide: The Ultimate Guide for Short-Term Survival Online
Authors: J. Wayne Fears
Tags: #Safety Measures, #Sports & Recreation, #Outdoor Skills, #Wilderness Survival, #Outdoor Life, #Outdoor Life - Safety Measures
If for some reason you are in a situation where there are wild plants you think you must eat but don’t know which ones are edible, the U.S. Air Force Edibility Test may be of some help:
- 1. Never use mushrooms or fungi.
- 2. Poisonous plant life means all parts, including flowers, can be toxic. Use caution with plants having these characteristics:
Milky or discolored sap
Spines or fine hairs
Bitter or soapy taste
Beans or bulbs
White or red berries
Shiny leaves
Umbrella flowers - 3. Take a small mouthful and chew it. Wait five minutes for any effects such as burning, stinging, or numbing.
- 4. If there is none, swallow and wait eight hours for any effects such as diarrhea, cramps, pains, numbing, vomiting, etc.
- 5. If there is none, repeat the process, using a handful of the plant, and wait another eight hours for ill effects.
- 6. If none, the plant is considered safe to eat.
Keep in mind that any new or strange food should be eaten with restraint until the body system has become accustomed to it. Also, don’t expect wild plants to taste good; many don’t and others are almost tasteless. It takes some adjustment to get your stomach to accept a diet of wild plants.
Some other things you need to know about wild plants:
- 1. Plants you see animals eating may be toxic to man. Deer love poison ivy.
- 2. Plants that may be edible in one stage of its growth cycle may not be edible in others, such as pokeweed.
- 3. Plants that contain one edible part may be inedible on other parts, such as the wild plum.
If the survivor really must resort to wild foods in order not to starve to death, then wild animals may be a better choice. That is if he has hunting and trapping skills. North America has a good population of wild animals, both large and small, that are edible. The trick is that you first must get them before you can cook them. Even the Lewis and Clark expedition members, at one point, almost starved to death due to not killing any game to eat and had to depend upon roots.
Depending upon the time of year and where you are geographically, there is some form of animal that you can eat if you can catch or kill it. Insects and small aquatic animals may be the easiest to gather and highest in protein, but what if it is winter? There may be an abundance of larger animals; but if you lack the skills necessary to kill them, you could go hungry. And remember, animals are often hard to find even by the most skilled hunters. Provided you can kill them, wild animals are a good source of food and may be cooked over the survival fire with ease. Just don’t expect them to taste like home cooking.
Survival food is not an important need for short term. Shelter and signaling are. Accept the fact that the last thing you should concern yourself with is the procurement of food. If you have filed a trip plan with a responsible person and just as soon as you knew you were in trouble you stopped, you will be rescued long before your hunger pains become serious. Think of this experience as the beginning of that diet you have been considering.
It takes a lot of experience to be an effective gatherer of wild foods. You will not need those skills for short-term survival. This is a good time to start your diet.
Hypothermia sneaks up on its victim. Cool weather, wind and wet clothing lead to hypothermia.
Hypothermia, a lowering of the core temperature of the body, can be a killer. It can strike in any season and in almost any climate. All that is needed is a mild air temperature—30 to 50°F, wetness, rain, sweat, a creek dunking, a slight wind and a tired person.
Hypothermia attacks a person in two steps. The first is when your body begins to lose heat faster than it produces it. At this point, you are aware of feeling cold, and the shivering begins.
The second step is when the cold reaches the brain, depriving you of good judgment. It is at this point that confusion will take over decision making. This is the reason almost no one recognizes that he or she has hypothermia. In the second step, your internal temperature slides downward. Without treatment, this slide leads to stupor, collapse and death. Each year many people become lost due to confusion brought on by early stages of hypothermia.
There are several ways to avoid hypothermia:
- 1. Stay dry. When clothing gets wet it may lose 90 percent of its insulating value. Even sweating can bring on hypothermia.
- 2. Beware of the wind chill. A slight breeze carries heat away from bare skin faster than still air. It turns wet clothing into a refrigerator due to evaporation.
- 3. Understand cold. Most hypothermia cases develop in air temperatures that are considered mild, wind chill temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Most people do not believe such temperatures can be dangerous.
- 4. Terminate exposure.When you cannot stay warm and dry in existing weather conditions, either get a fire going at a natural shelter out of the wind or set up your tube tent and get into the emergency bag. Get out of the wind and dampness, and get warm, as fast as possible.
- 5. Never ignore shivering. Persistent or violent shivering is clear warning that you are in the early stages of hypothermia.
When hypothermia symptoms are noticed, treatment should begin immediately. First get the victim out of the weather and remove his wet clothing. If the victim is only mildly impaired, give him warm drinks and get him into dry clothing and a tube tent and emergency bag.
If the victim is semiconscious or worse, he does not have the capability of regaining his body temperature without outside help. Keep him awake, give him warm drinks and, if possible, get him into a warm bath. If possible, strip the victim and put him into an emergency bag with another person. Skin-to-skin contact is an effective treatment.
Initial symptoms of hypothermia, the loss of core body temperature, include mood changes, lassitude, irritability and poor judgment.
As the body core temperature drops, here is how hypothermia affects you:
98.6° to 96°
Uncontrolled shivering, ability to perform complex tasks impaired.
95° to 91°
Violent shivering, difficulty in speaking.
90° to 86°
Shivering decreases, muscles begin to stiffen—lose coordination. Mind becomes dull; in some cases, amnesia occurs.
85° to 81°
Victim becomes irrational, drifts into stupor. Pulse and respiration are slowed. Muscular rigidity continues.
80° to 78°
Unconsciousness. Reflexes cease to function and heartbeat becomes erratic.
Below 78°
Total failure of cardiac and respiration systems. Death occurs.
In a survival situation, every effort should be made to avoid hypothermia. That means getting a warm camp set up before you get wet and cold. Don’t put off getting a survival camp established. Delay can be deadly.
Avoid hypothermia at all cost!
