What Are Survival Skills and How to Improve them

Humans have evolved to such great lengths that days of us hunting to get food, hiding from predators, and building our shelter are long gone. Learning survival skills may seem useless at first, what can possibly go wrong? The possibility of you getting lost in a jungle while hiking or getting separated from your team while trekking or forgetting your way back home is pretty slim.
But Problems don’t knock before coming. Life is unpredictable and these unpredictable situations bring out the need for us to learn basic survival skills.

Before we jump into learning various survival skills, the question that needs to be answered is, WHAT ARE SURVIVAL SKILLS?
Survival skills are the techniques used to sustain life in any adverse situation or harsh environment. These techniques provide us with the means to withstand life-threatening calamities. They provide us with necessities required to support human life like clean drinking water, safe shelter, food, etc.

There are several survival skills to learn. But before digging deeper into the various skills, having a grasp over some basic techniques is better.

The first vital survival skill to learn is the ability to ignite a fire.
Yes, you heard me right. If you know the right way to build a fire, it can save your life.

Fire helps you see in the dark and also keeps you safe from predators like wild animals. You can cook food and purify water. Fire also keeps you warm, and you can signal to rescuers for help. Anyone who steps out of their house should know at least one way to start a fire. Before starting a fire, it is crucial to have proper tinder. Tinder is a very dry husk that will make it easy to start a fire.

Some different ways to start a fire are listed below.
The first way to create fire is by using sunlight. When the sun rays are focused at one point through a magnifying glass, it creates enough heat to start a fire. In place of glass, one can even use clear water to focus sun rays.

The second method to start a fire is through friction. It is one of the most ancient ways. The basic principle of this technique is that friction between two objects creates heat, and heat produced can be used to create fire. Basically, you rub two pieces of wood together that will generate enough heat to start a fire.
The last technique that we are going to discuss is using rock and steel to start a fire. A spark is produced when you strike a knife blade against a hard rock. By keeping the knife and rock near some dry husk, the spark produced can be used to start a fire.

The second important survival skill to learn is creating drinkable water. Water is vital for your survival. Being able to make potable water is a crucial skill needed to survive. Natural water sources are not always directly consumable. They may contain bacterias and pesticides. Because of this reason, there is a need for clean water

The easiest way to do this is by boiling water. Boiling the water purifies it and makes it drinkable. You can also filter the water using a t-shirt.
If you fail to find any water source, you have an option to build a solar still. To make a solar still, you first dig a hole that is almost 1 foot deep and 2 feet wide. You place a container in the hole and cover the hole with a plastic sheet. Seal the edges using dirt. Place rock in the center of the cover. Leave it like this for some time, and you will observe water condensing on the underside of the plastic cover. It will get collected into the container.

The third survival skill to have a grasp over is building a shelter. A shelter will keep you safe from wild animals. You don’t have to construct a mansion. You need a roof over your head. One of the important tasks to be done when you get lost is finding a shelter.
Before you start building your shelter, it is vital to observe the environment and the climate.

One of the easiest designs you can build is the Round Lodge shelter. This shelter is very similar to a tipi structure. This type of shelter can block wind, sun, rain, and cold. To build this shelter, you first have to collect wood logs. Try to collect wood logs that are approximately the same length. After that, try assembling all the wood logs into a conical structure, with one end of all the logs forming the vertex of this structure. Now tie all the wood logs together at the top. You can cover the outside of the shelter with leaves or grass to give it extra protection.

Some other types of shelter to look at are snow caves, tarp shelters, tarp hammocks, etc. If you can’t build a shelter, try finding a safe cave in the area with no wild animal living in it. It can be your shelter for some time.

The fourth skill to have is finding food. We have to eat to fuel our bodies and keep us alive. You can learn how to identify flowers, herbs, mushrooms, roots, etc., that are edible.

Another source of food is a fish or an animal. Try learning to build some simple traps to hunt fish and trap animals. Having this skill will allow you to obtain the necessary proteins required by your body.

The last basic skill to learn is making a weapon. You can protect yourself with a strong weapon. The first weapon you can make is a knife with two rocks. You can also make a slingshot forked stick and rubber. One more weapon that you can make is a spear using a sturdy wood stick. Sharpen the end of the wood stick to make it look similar to a spear.

Learning these survival skills will definitely aid your survival but always remember. No matter how many survival techniques you acquire, the most vital component of surviving is using your brain, and the most important survival technique is, try not to panic and keep calm.

With Prepper surival guide magazine subscription you will learn more about the survival kills.