Survival skills

Contents

2.1 Communication
2.2 First aid
2.3 Self defense
2.4 Navigation
2.5 Map making
2.6 Climbing
2.7 Swimming
2.8 Working with rope
2.9 Tying knots
2.10 Improvising fuel for some vehicle
2.11 Boat building
2.12 Making a raft

The basic survival skills are skills, which help a human stay alive in a certain environment.

Each type of environment challenges a person with a different range of dangers. An environment may be dry, wet, hot, cold, low altitude, high altitude, void space, desert, rural, domestic, urban, wilderness, subterranean, an island etc. Nevertheless, there are three basic necessities of life which apply in all of these cases:

Basic necessities

Resources

The human body's primary need is oxygen, secondary drinking water and tetriary food. Without constant access to any of these resources life cannot continue. The skills needed to obtain them include:

Digging a well
Recycling of air and water
Foraging
- Fishing with rope and hook, with a net, or a spear
- Hunting with weapons and traps made from ropes, wires and wood
- Herbal knowledge
Cooking

Rest

Another need of the human organism is rest, either by sleeping or some other form of relaxation. One needs a shelter to rest in unstable environments.

Shelter

A human body cannot function unprotected from extreme enviroments. Extreme temperature and pressure have adverse effects on tissue and bodily fluids, which can cause destruction of organs. Hostile creatures or humans can also harm a body, so if it is not possible to change the environment, one should protect himself with a barrier:

a tent, tipi or yurt for protection from the sun, small creatures or cold
a raft not to drown and as protection from sharks while trying to find safety
a bunker or other sealed container with sufficient resources to survive unfriendly atmospheres

Therefore the skills needed to obtain these necessities are the basic survival skills.

Other skills

For long-term survival some other skills may be necessary:

Communication

Sometimes, a helping hand is all one needs to survive. To come around language barriers , one could try drawing, sign language or another encoding, such as morse code.