12 Wildlife Survival Myths Dangerous to Believe
Miscellaneous / / August 01, 2021
Do not try to imitate John Rambo and Lara Croft, otherwise it could cost you your life.
1. To find the source of water, you have to go after the birds
This is partly logical: birds need to drink, they flock to water sources. Therefore, if you also need to replenish stocks, then you should be guided by the thirsty birds. At least in cartoons, it works.
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True, in practice, you end up wandering somewhere and getting lost.
Sometimes the birds are really headed20 Biggest Survival Myths Exposed / Survival Sullivan to the water, but more often not. They may have other goals as well. So relying on their help to navigate is like determining the cardinal points by moss, which, whatever sounds in popular misconceptions, can grow anywhere.
2. If something sharp is stuck into the body, it must be removed immediately.
When an arrow is stuck into the hero of a Hollywood movie, or he falls unsuccessfully on a sharp branch, or turns out to be pierced by some other sharp object, first of all the character tries to pull the object out of wounds. And then he goes on about his business, limping picturesquely and clutching the hole in the side with his palm.
Remember Lara Croft from the 2018 film adaptation of Tomb Raider: she threw a piece of wood on her side, grimaced, gritted her teeth, pulled out a foreign body, screamed and walked. This is a woman!
But in reality, if you do what Miss Croft does, you will just bleed out.
An object that has inflicted a wound and is stuck in it stops the bleeding like a cork. Pulling it out yourself is highly discouraged.Removing an Object From a Wound / University of Michigan Health. Better to wrap the object in the wound around the edges of the wound so that it remains motionless, and rush to the hospital.
3. To survive in quicksand, you have to freeze
If you are caught in quicksand, stop moving to stop the dive. And if you start floundering, you will simply drown.
This is wrong. It is completely impossible to drown in quicksand - you will dive to the maximum to the waist, which we, by the way, have already talked about wrote. This, of course, is also dangerous, because a stuck person will become an easy prey for dangerous animals or die of thirst.
If you want to avoid this, remember: a static pose will not do the trick. You will dive anyway.
To stopHow Quicksand Works / HowStuffWorks this, it is necessary to increase the area of contact with the sand. Take off your backpack and other weights, lie on your back, gradually free your legs. Then you can roll over onto your stomach and crawl out of the danger zone.
4. Snow is great for quenching your thirst
In general, there is some sense in this, because snow is frozen water. However, they will not be able to quench their thirst normally. First, the snow consistsSnow Characteristics / National Snow and Ice Data Center from water only by 5-10%, the rest is air.
That is why snowflakes have a low density and fall more slowly than raindrops. To get drunk, you have to eat a lot of snow. But here the second problem awaits you.
Snow - cold. If you don’t believe it, touch it. True, for this you have to go to the mountains or wait for winter. By eating it, you cool your body, you can catch a cold and increase the risk of freezing.
Eating snow means wasting precious calories and not getting much water in return.
However, in the absence of another liquid, you canIs Snow Melt Safe to Drink? / Backpacker melt in a bowl, boil (this is mandatory), cool and then drink. It's longer than just a handful of it, but safer.
And certainly, under no circumstances should you eat colored snow. Especially yellow. By the way, about this ...
5. And instead of drinking, your own urine will do.
Climber Aaron Ralston once fell into a crevice, got stuck and spent 127 hours there. Thirsty, he drank his own urine. As a result, in order to survive, he amputated his arm, escaped from the trap and returned to the people. By the way, even movie removed.
You can admire Ralston's courage and resilience, but not his knowledge of survival in extreme situations.
The composition of urine looks likeShould you actually drink your own pee in a survival situation? / Business Insider to sea water: it is full of sodium and chloride, its use will lead to dehydration. That is, to a result that is exactly the opposite of the desired one.
Drinking urine puts more stress on your kidneys, lowers blood pressure, and runs the risk of infection. Finally, nausea does not help survival, and if you vomit, you will lose even more fluids.
6. It is enough to go forward to get somewhere
Some people think that in order to get to the destination, it is enough to know only the direction of walking. Landmarks, route, trails, roads? Who needs all this.
You can simply ask which way to go, and after a few hours of persistent movement of your legs, you will be in the camp. But this is how travel works only in movies and computer games, where you can simply press the "Forward" button and sit down to drink tea.
In reality, however, it is necessary at least once an hour to check and clarify the direction of your movement, referring to a map, compass, stars, the Sun, or in any other accessible way.
Because humans have a dominant leg, they tend toJ. L. Souman, I. Frissen. Walking Straight into Circles / Current Biology in the absence of landmarks, it is imperceptible to shift the motion vector - degree by degree. As a result, you can seriously deviate from the course. Moreover, it is not necessary to wander in the forest: go astray it is also possible in an open field, where the entire area is visible for kilometers around.
According toWhy We Walk in Circles / Science Magazine Psychologist Robert Klacki of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, travelers often begin to zigzag and walk in circles in cloudy weather. When the sun and the shadows cast by it are not visible, our brain is lost and we unnoticeably turn off the path.
7. On a desert island, you can survive on coconut water
Coconuts are a traditional source of drinking in the desert islands, which is shown in films and in cartoons. And you might get the impression that even if there is no fresh water on the island, you can comfortably exist there thanks to these fruits.
Opening them, of course, is still a task. But it’s quite possible.
But coconut water has a diuretic effect. Eating too much of it also causesCan You Survive On Coconut Water? / Ultimate Survival Space diarrhea. This in turn leads to dehydration.
In addition, if you drink a lot of coconut water, there is some risk of an excess of potassium in the blood and acute kidney failure. Although not enough research has been done yet 1. J. Hakimian, S. H. Goldbarg. Death by Coconut / Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology
2. R. N. Rees, J. Barnett. Coconut water-induced hyperkalaemia / British Journal of Hospital Medicineto say for sure.
In general, in small doses, the contents coconuts tasty and healthy, but they cannot replace drinking water.
8. Wounds should be rinsed with urine or cauterized
Since ancient times, urine has been used by mankind in incredibly original, but no less disgusting ways. Romans in ancient times they washed6 Practical Ways Romans Used Human Urine and Feces in Daily Life / Mental Floss in her clothes and rinsed her mouth with it.
Medieval scientists used urine (and horoscope) to determine the future of the subject. And the craving for washing wounds with this liquid appeared, most likely, in antiquity. Pliny the Elder recommendedThe unusual uses of urine / The Guardian urine for the treatment of "ulcers, burns, cracks in the anus, abrasions and scorpion bites."
The idea that, in the absence of clean water, damaged areas should be treated with urine is widespread to this day - because it is supposedly sterile. But this method of traditional medicine has no evidence.
On the contrary, it is not recommended 1. Urine is not sterile, and neither is the rest of you / Science News
2. L. Montgomery, J. Seys, J. Mees. To Pee, or Not to Pee: A Review on Envenomation and Treatment in European Jellyfish Species clean wounds with urine, because it contains harmful bacteria that can cause infection and sodium salts that interfere with healing.
It is also not worth urinating on bee, wasp and spider stings, as well as on jellyfish burns.
In addition, you cannot cauterize wounds with a red-hot iron, or even more so with an explosion of gunpowder (yeah, as in "Rambo-3"). The idea is that you are supposedly destroying pathogenic bacteria in the wound with a high temperature.
But in practice, moxibustion increases the risk of sepsis, creating favorable conditions for the development of infection. After all, it is impossible to burn out infected tissues without damaging healthy ones.
Back in the 16th century, the French surgeon Ambroise Paré noticedJ. E. McCallum. Military Medicine: From Ancient Times to the 21st Centurythat wounded soldiers who escaped the "cure" with hot metal or boiling oil survive more often than those who were properly cared for by good doctors.
9. And also apply plantain to them
In fact, plantain is a really healthy thing. Research confirms 1. S. Ashkani-Esfahani, M. Khoshneviszadeh. The Healing Effect of Plantago Major and Aloe Vera Mixture in Excisional Full Thickness Skin Wounds: Stereological Study / World Journal of Plastic Surgery
2. Y. Najafian, Z. M. Khorasani. Efficacy of Aloe vera / Plantago Major Gel in Diabetic Foot Ulcer: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial / Current Drug Discovery Technologiesthat it contains substances that reduce pain and increase the speed of wound recovery. Another thing is that in laboratory conditions, a purified and sterile plantain extract was used, and even in combination with aloe vera.
And if you stick on a broken knee a leaf torn from the side of the road, moistened with your own saliva, then, rather, you will bring harmful substances and microbes from its surface into the wound, and not healing Components. The plantain must be rinsed thoroughly, then chopped or crushed to produce juice. And only then attach to the wound and fix.
Naturally, this should be done only when there is no more at hand effective means for treating damage.
10. Boil water for at least 10 minutes
Some tourists believe that to purify water from a stream or river from potential microbes, you need to boil it for 10, 15, or even 20 minutes. But this is not the case.
The US EPA recommendsEmergency Disinfection of Drinking Water / U.S. Environmental Protection Agency boil water for 1 minute if you are on the plain. And 3 minutes - if you are in the mountains at an altitude of more than a kilometer. This is because the boiling point of water changes with atmospheric pressure.
Heating the fluid for longer is a waste of fuel. And this can lead to sad consequences if you do not have enough firewood.
There is another myth: if the water in the source flows quickly, then it can be drunk absolutely calmly without any treatment. This is not so: you do not know what may be lying in the river upstream. So boilSurvival Myth: Fast-moving Water is Safe to Drink / Prepping To Survive you need water even from the cleanest Alpine streams.
11. Matches are the best way to light fires
In general, matches are a useful thing on a hike, but they have a lot of disadvantages. First, they easily damp and ultimately become completely useless. Secondly, it becomes rather difficult to set something on fire with them during rain or strong wind. And all kinds of hunting matches have a higher price and shelf life restrictions.
Therefore, get a better supply of lighters.
They catch fire more easily, and are not particularly afraid of moisture, and at the same time are very cheap. Of course, nothing prevents you from having matches with you, but the lighter is easier to use. True, there is a drawback: at very low temperatures, it may not work. However, gasoline lighters are devoid of this disadvantage.
As far as flint is concerned, it is an extremely effective thing in the right hands. And just as useless if you don't know how to handle it. It is not easy to light a fire with it, especially in wet weather.
12. Meat and fish can be eaten raw if you are hungry
In adventure films and TV programs, we constantly see how survivalists get game or fish with a makeshift spear or snare. And then they cut it up and eat it without any culinary treatment.
It is clear that if you have no other food, then you will have to forget about the delights. But eating raw meat, even if you are very hungry, means you risk serious health problems: it can contain various disease-causing bacteria and parasites.
For example, Trichinella spp. Are tiny worms that often inhabit wild animals, most commonly pigs.
They affect the muscles and internal organs of the animal. And they may well kill you.
Any game or fish that you have caught must be fried 1. Trichinellosis Information for Hunters / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2. If I kill an animal, can I eat it raw? / HowStuffWorks for a long time, bringing their internal temperature to at least 70 ° C. In addition, meat that has tumors, abscesses, or suspicious growths should not be eaten.
And never try carrion: sometimes even Inuit manage to get poisoned by rotting products, and they kopalchem since childhood they have been chewing.
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