FINDING FOOD IN WILDERNESS
In most cases food is your second survival essential, just after water. It provides energy and many microelements necessary for proper functioning of your body.
General approach to hunting
Apart from few exceptions, basically everything that walks, crawles, flies or swims is suitable for eating by humans. Nonetheless, gaining food through hunting is not an easy task. Unless you have a chance to take larger animals, you should concentrate your efforts on the smaller game. Smaller animals are also easier to prepare for eating.
Before you decide which game to hunt, you should investigate what classes of animals can be found in your environment. For example animals which have somewhat fixed feeding areas, those that have trails leading from one to another or those who occupy certain areas like dens or nests are perfect for trapping. Knowing their habits, you can place snares on their paths and simply wait. Larger animals, on the other hand, move across vast areas and are therefore difficult to trap. Knowing habits and food choices of animals from your area will make hunting much easier.
Before moving to the hunting technics for various species, it is crucial to understand that in a survival situation you should overcome your aversion to any possible food sources. Snakes, insects, worms, frogs and many other species can be good sources of food. In a survival situation you will most likely not have the comfort to choose what you want to eat. You should look for these food sources that are the easiest and safest to obtain. Only after securing your situation, building a shelter and providing enough supplies to be safe, it may be reasonable to widen your food selection and include animals that are more difficult to catch. You should always avoid hunts that may be dangerous for you - getting injured in wilderness is extremely dangerous.
Survival hunting technics for various species
Insects
Insects in 65 to 80 per cent are made of protein, whereas a regular stake contains only 20 percent protein. This proves high quality of insects as a source of food. Moreover, insects due to their abundance are very easy to catch. You should avoid all adult insects that sting or bite, hairy insects and brightly coloured ones, which are often poisonous. Also avoid eating spiders and common disease carriers such as mosquitoes,ticks and flies.
Looking for food, check rotting logs lying on the ground. Among others, you can find there ants, beetles, termites and grubs (beetle larvae). Look for other natural insect nests on the ground: grassy areas are those places where insects can be easily seen, also stones and boards or other materials lying on the ground - all these provide perfect nesting sites for insects. Also insect larvae are eadible.
Beetles, grasshoppers and other insects that have a hard outer shell will have parasites. You should cook them before eating. Also remove any barbed legs and wings. There are various ways of preparing insects. You can cook them alone or with vegetation, grind them into a paste or simply eat raw. Taste of insects varies among species. You can try various methods for preparing insects found in your environment to find the best solution.
Worms
Worms are an excellent protein source. You can dig for them in damp humus soil and watch for them on the ground after rain. If after capturing you drop them accidentally, put them into clean, potable water for a few minutes and they will naturally purge or wash themselves out. After that you can eat them raw.
Crustaceans
Freshwater shrimp can reach sizes anywhere from 0.25 to 2.5cm. Best places to find them are floating algae or mud bottoms of pond and lakes where they form large colonies.
Crayfish are akin to lobsters and crabs. They can be distinguished by their five pairs of legs, the front having oversized pincers. Crayfish also have hard exoskeleton. To find them you have to look under stones in rivers or streams, or search in the soft mud near chimneylike breathing holes of their nests, where they hide during daytime. Crayfish are generally active at night. To catch them tie bits of offal or internal organs to a string. When the crayfish grabs the bait, pull it to shore, before it has a chance to release the bait.
Saltwater crabs, shrimp and lobsters can be found anywhere from surf's edge out to water 10 metres deep. Lobsters and crabs are night creatures and therefore it is best to cach them by night. Crabs will come to bait placed at the edge of the surf, where you can net or trap them. Shrimp may come to a light at night where you can scoop them up with a net.
Mollusks
Mollusks include octopuses and freshwater and saltwater shellfish such as clams, snails, bivalves, mussels, barnacles, chitons, periwinkles, and sea urchins. You find bivalves similar to freshwater mussel and terrestrial and aquatic snails worldwide under all water conditions.
In rivers, streams and lakes of northern coniferous forests, there are plentiful of river snails or freshwater periwinkles. These may be globular or pencil point in shape. You can find mollusks in freshwater shallows, especially with sandy or muddy bottom. You can trace them by dark elliptical slit of their open valves or by narrow trails they leave in the mud.
Near the sea look in wet sand and the tidal pools. You can also find shellfish hanging on rocks along beaches or extending as reefs into deeper water. From low water upward, there may be snails and limpets cling to rocks and seaweed. Large snails, called chitons, adhere tightly to rocks above the surf line. Mussels usually form dense colonies in rock pools, on logs or at the base of boulders.
You can boil, steam or bake mollusks in the shell. You can prepare excellent stews of combination of mollusks, greens and tubers.
There are few precautions in eating mollusks. In tropical zones, especially during summer, some species may be poisonous. Also it is not advisable to eat shellfish which are not covered with water at high tide as they may be rotten.
Fish
Fish represent a good source of protein and fat. Due to their abundance, it may often be easier to catch fish than mammal wildlife. As with any other game, it is good to know habits of fish as it makes them much easier to catch. In rivers with heavy current, fish will rest in places where there is an eddy, such as near rocks. Fish will also gather in and around submerged foliage, logs, or other objects that offer them shelter. You can also look for them where there are deep pools, under overhanging brush. It is good to know that fish tend to feed extensively before storms, and are not likely fo feed after it, when the water is muddy and swollen. At night fish can be also attracted by light.
In general, there are no poisonous freshwater fish. You should be careful about catfish species though, as it has needlelike protrusions on its dorsal fins and barbels, which can inflictpuncture wounds that are painful, easily become infected and do not heal well.
Freshwater fish and saltwater fish caught within a reef or within the influence of freshwater often contain parasites. It is best to cook such fish every time to kill the parasites. Saltwater environment prevents developement of parasites, therefore any marine wildlife obtained further out in the sea can be eaten raw.
Flesh of some saltwater species of fish is poisonous. Examples of those are the porcupine fish, cowfish, triggerfish, oilfish, thorn fish, red snapper, jack and puffer. You can see them in the picture on the right. The barracuda is not actually poisonous itself, but may transmit ciguatera (fish poisoning) if eaten raw.
Amphibians
You can easily find salamanders and frogs around bodies of fresh water. When catching frogs, remember that they are very careful. They seldom leave water's edge and at any sign of danger pluge into water and bury themselves in mud. Also bare in mind that there are some poisonous species of frogs. To stay safe, avoid any that have distinct 'X' marks on their backs or are in any way brightly coloured.
Do not confuse toads with frogs. Toads can be normally found in drier environments. Several species of toads secrete a poisonous substance through their skin as a defense against attack. It is best to completely avoid toads.
Salamanders vary in size. They can range in length from few centimetres to even 60. They come out at night and that is also the best time to find them. You should use light and look in water around mud banks and rocks.
Reptiles
Reptiles are relatively easy to catch and they are also a good source of protein. Reptiles can be eaten raw, but it''s better to cook or roast them as their flesh may contain parasites. There are however few species of reptiles which you should avoid:
- box turtle - it feeds on poisonous mushrooms, and its flesh may contain higly toxic poison, which is not destroyed by cooking.
- hawksbill turtle - it lives in the Atlantic Ocean and should be avoided due to poisonous thorax gland.
- Other species like poisonous snakes, aligators and crocodiles should be avoided. Danger of being hurt or killed is to high to atempt to hunt them.
Birds
All species of birds are edible, although you should know that taste may vary significantly depending on species. The taste of fish-eating birds can be improved by removing their skin. Many species, like pigeons for example, can be taken from their roosts at night by hand. Some species during their nesting season will not leave their nests during the day even if approached.
Birds often have regular flyways from the roost to water, feeding areas etc. If you're watchful, you should be able to observe them. You can stretch nets on these flyways to catch birds. Most important though are rosting sites and waterholes. Trapping and snaring is most efficient there.
Do not forget that nesting birds can be a perfect source of eggs. If you find a nest the best strategy is to remove all but two or three eggs and mark those that are left. Birds tend to lay new eggs to fill clutch. You can continue to remove unmarked eggs, leaving those marked.
Mammals
Mammals are food which many people are most used to. They are also good protein sources. There are though some drawbacks to hunting mammals. All of them have teeth and will bite in self-defence. Such bites can present a serious risk of infection. Mammals are often very defensive of their young. In general, you should assume that the bigger the mammal, the greater harm it can do to you. Remember that in a suvival situation even small wounds may turn to be deadly.
All mammals are edible but it is wise to avoid:
- livers of polar bear and bearded seal as levels of vitamin A contained by them may be toxic,
- glands of platypus, a native mammal of Tasmania and Australia as they are poisonous,
- scavenging mammals, such as the opossum, as they may carry diseases.