At what age would a human child be capable of surviving in the wild? (continued)
Peter Bursztyn
Barrie, Ontario, Canada
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Let your imagination run wild. Imagine a teenager strolling down a street after school. Their head is down, thumbs glued to their cellphone. Their peripheral vision is good enough to avoid bumping up against 鈥渟treet furniture鈥� like bus shelters.
Now, imagine the buildings change to a forest scene. The pavement becomes a dirt path. What finally alerts the teenager to the change is that their signal fades. Their head pops up and they take in the new scenery with some dismay.
If their parents had taken them on canoe trips, they might be accustomed to gathering firewood and cooking on a campfire. How would they light this fire? Perhaps they have some matches or a lighter 鈥� good for a few days. How about tinder? Would they have ever learned to gather the right type of lichen 鈥� and dry it 鈥� to work as tinder? Is there birch bark nearby?
So, the fire is lit 鈥� somehow 鈥� but what to cook on said fire? Does our teenager know how to set a trap for a rabbit or catch a pigeon or a fish (but without string or a hook)? Perhaps they could sneak up on an unsuspecting bird at night, when they typically don鈥檛 fly.
How to kill this bird and pluck its feathers? Is there a Swiss Army knife in the teen鈥檚 pocket? Is the blade sharp enough to butcher the animal? How about looking for wild vegetable foods? What is the likelihood that there are wild carrots or some primitive brassica (cabbage) growing nearby? Our teenager has no pot, so these foods would need to be speared onto a sharpened stick and held above the flames.
Assume the above has been accomplished and they have a relatively full belly. The next day dawns. 鈥淗ow do I get out of here?鈥� The chances of having a compass are minuscule, and which direction would they go 鈥渋n the 鈥渨ild鈥�? Where indeed is the nearest settlement?
As it happens, their Swiss Army knife has a small saw, so they could cut finger-size branches to create a lean-to. (Such saws tend to be sharp but tiny and not particularly easy to use.) They could gather conifer branches to create a thatch roof as well as walls for their shelter.
I remember creating a comfy bed out of conifer branches in my youth. However, even with my long experience canoeing, hiking and camping, I have never tried to truly 鈥渓ive off the land鈥�, so I would be unlikely to stay alive for long.
My guess is that a typical child of today is less well-equipped to survive in the wilderness than is the unusually experienced octogenarian writing this.
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