Survival as a Hunter Gatherer

[Donny]

If you (the fairly experienced at foraging and trapping etc.) were to go on a long hike for, lets say, a few months and hiked across the more remote locations of Britain, would you be able to survive on merely hunting and foraging for food? Would there be enough to survive happily while getting enough healthy food and energy to continue with your hike?

 

[Toadflax]

I'm not experienced enough to say anything about this, but you may want to expand the question to a hypothetical situation (i.e. a genuine survival situation where you could use any means for gathering food) or a legal situation (where you must stay within the limits of current law).


Geoff

 

[robin wood]

I quite fancied this type of thing 20 years ago when I used to travel, hitch hike around and rough camp a lot. I worked my way through Richard Maybe's "food for free" and found a few interesting taste treats like samphire but little that would seriously fill the belly or be a pleasing even as a baked potato. If you're on the coast you can easily fill up on shellfish, in land it's harder. So my answer

survive yes
happily no

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Winter vitamins, mainly vit. C, to avoid malnutrition and scurvy wouldbe tricky without having stored/preserved or something for carrying.

Nick

 

[Matt Weir]

I'm not experienced enough to say anything about this, but you may want to expand the question to a hypothetical situation (i.e. a genuine survival situation where you could use any means for gathering food) or a legal situation (where you must stay within the limits of current law).


Geoff

Apologies for going OT but I saw your avatar and though "He's pinched Geoff's clef!".

 

[Donny]

I'm not experienced enough to say anything about this, but you may want to expand the question to a hypothetical situation (i.e. a genuine survival situation where you could use any means for gathering food) or a legal situation (where you must stay within the limits of current law).


Geoff

I suppose both would be up for discussion. If you were to be in this situation there may be times where you genuinely need to survive. On other occasions you may have enough food to survive but gathering would also help.

If you're on the coast you can easily fill up on shellfish,

I started this topic as I am thinking of taking a long hike, along the coastline. It just so happens, yesterday morning on "Dave" (lol, gotta love that channel name) 'The Ray Mears' Wild Food' program was on, and it was all about food on the coast of Britain! I was very pleased to have unintentionally caught this program right at the start.

Ok, so if I were to hike the coastlines of Britain, would I be able to add a sufficient amount of food to my diet by gathering vegetation, shellfish, crabs, possibly fish (from rivers & sea), land animals (rabbits)?, to my diet to make food last longer when most needed?

 

[gregorach]

Pretty difficult in this day and age - most of the really good hunting or foraging environments are gone, replaced with agriculture, and most of the "wilderness" that's left is pretty barren, at least as far as edibles are concerned. I don't see you being able to pick up the 3000+ kcals a day that you'd need easily, if at all. And the idea of doing whilst going somewhere just makes it harder...

Now, if you expand "foraging" slightly to include farm theft and poaching, it might be a different matter - but I don't much fancy your chances of getting away with it.

 

[RobertRogers]

I do not live in the UK, but the northeastern USA, heavily forested. Winter would be tough but I wrote an article along these lines you might be interested in reading - Foraging on the move.

A coastline should be even easier to live off from as you have a whole additional ecosystem to supply you.

As long as you are prepared to set aside any food prejudices you may have (I maintain this becomes easier the hungrier you get) it is possible.

Also, as far as Vit C, if there are evergreen trees you never have to think about this problem again: Native Scurvy Cure

Hope this answers your question to some extent.

 

[gregorach]

OK, a few more posts while I was writing that... One more thing:

Shellfish are a great source of oils and protein, but you still need carbs. While it may be possible to live for a while on an almost-all-shellfish diet, I really wouldn't much fancy it.

As a supplimental source of food, yes. As your only source of food, probably not.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Shellfish that filter feed pick up pollutants so eating too many may increase the risks.

Scottish Drovers were healthy eaters, travelling most of the time, fresh meat, dairy produce etc.

Travel with a cow?

Nick

 

[Neolithic]

Pretty difficult in this day and age - most of the really good hunting or foraging environments are gone, replaced with agriculture, and most of the "wilderness" that's left is pretty barren.

I think it's terrible the way we are forced to live within the modern dietry perameters - i.e. agriculture or purchasing it. Whatever happened to freedom of choice?

Pah.

 

[Toddy]

OK, a few more posts while I was writing that... One more thing:

Shellfish are a great source of oils and protein, but you still need carbs. While it may be possible to live for a while on an almost-all-shellfish diet, I really wouldn't much fancy it.

As a supplimental source of food, yes. As your only source of food, probably not.

In Archaeology we are told that the nutritional equivalent of one red deer is 31,360 limpets or 156,800 cockles. I suppose that explains the huge shell middens of the past
I think they ate shellfish like we eat peanuts, crisps and popcorn

The shoreline may provide good food (don't forget the seaweeds and tidal estuary plants too) but unless you are hunting birds and fish too, I agree, it's lean eating.

I tripped across this link, interesting reading
www.archaeologyonline.org/Documents/FoodDrink.pdf

cheers,
Toddy

 

[falling rain]

You'd also have to remember that any fishing and gathering of shellfish, setting traps etc takes time and you're not always succesful. Time of year will depend on what fish are about. The coast is not littered with shellfish they live in colonies and local beds are they safe to eat? is there pollution in that area? Pebble beaches will provide very lean pickings indeed as far as shellfish go, but your seashore plants like sea beet. samphires in the marshes , alexanders, etc will be local too. Estuarys are good places for shellfish gathering.
Anyway if you're hiking you'll have to give over a large portion of your time to catching and foraging leaving little time for hiking, or if your hiking a lot you'll have less time for fishing and gathering. And bear in mind you'd need a lot of calories to keep you going if your doing a lot of walking with a backpack. There's a lot of hills on the coast.
It'd be very hard...........and then you've got to get fresh water..............

 

[BOD]

I cannot claim any expertise as a hunter gatherer but have done some occasional foraging in the bush.

A couple of years ago, I did several recces for sections of a 100 km coastal walk in Borneo that I planned to do but never did do in one go. Most were to prepare for the geography and scout campsites but for one I decided to forage.

The first day I walked and made a camp late in the evening. On the second day, I spent two or three hours in the mangroves looking for snails (telescopium) and found only one of edible size. I made a crab trap from drift wood and flotsam and I got a crab but it slipped out just as I was about to land it. No other crab came in.

I spent three hours looking for fresh water in the hills behind the mangroves as the stream was brackish far upstream and eventually got it from a small spring.

By the time I had carried the water to the camp and boiled it, I was so tired that I had no energy left for lamping for fish at night. Screw pine hearts were available however.

That taught me a lesson. Foraging and any sort of artificial time table don’t go together. And don’t have any preconceived ideas about the feast of crab, deer or whatever you think you will eat or get.

That area had loads of snails and crabs on other occasions but not when I wanted them.

I would have been better off just fasting in terms of the energy input: output ratio

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the camera had crapped out the day before and I bailed out the next day.

Robert Rogers is right - you grab a grasshopper when you can.

Hunter gathering is dependant on being part of a community and preparing food for at least a year ahead if not longer and your migration route is food source dependant. If any trips were made for the fun of it, I’m sure the travellers built up a store of supplies before moving off.

Going in without loads of beans, rice, bacon and so on and expecting to live off the land is just doing a McCandless.

 

[Verdegris]

I do not live in the UK, but the northeastern USA, heavily forested.
Also, as far as Vit C, if there are evergreen trees you never have to think about this problem again: [

I agree - I live in the Northeast as well, vit C not a problem here.
I think I could survive for most of the year pretty well, with the caveat that I was carrying either a 20 ga. or a .22 rifle. I often use simple crayfish traps in the local rivers and streams with great results. Ditto fishing for trout, bass and carp. The NY State DEP recommends that no more than 1/2 lb. of fish be eaten per person per week due to pollution, but a. we're talking about survival and b. they paint the dangers of pollution a little darkly I think.
It's my foraging skills that need the most work, alas. Positively identifying vegetable foods with real caloric content is quite difficult - more so than hunting squirrels says I.

 

[sandbender]

If you (the fairly experienced at foraging and trapping etc.) were to go on a long hike for, lets say, a few months and hiked across the more remote locations of Britain, would you be able to survive on merely hunting and foraging for food? Would there be enough to survive happily while getting enough healthy food and energy to continue with your hike?

Donny, it depends on the season, I'm guessing however that when you asked the question you weren't thinking about the dead of winter

As falling rain has already pointed out, trapping would be tricky if you were planning to constantly be on the move. However if you were to stop occasionally until at least some of your trapping was successful, then I think you would have a less miserable time.

I don't see you being able to pick up the 3000+ kcals a day that you'd need easily, if at all. And the idea of doing whilst going somewhere just makes it harder...

I have some experience of this, it is practically impossible to get this much energy out of the environment here daily, however we are (I believe) designed to exist in a state of feast and famine, Three or four days into eating nothing but rosebay willow herb, birch polypore soup, beech mast etc. makes you feel quite sorry for yourself, however you are still more than able to keep the fire going and check the snares and lines etc.

With that said even if your trapping is successful, rabbits, hares or fish are still not hitting all the marks as far as nutrition goes.

.....and then you've got to get fresh water..............

I think water will be your biggest problem, if your going to carry a proper water filter and purification tablets maybe less so, but if you plan to go the primitive route things will be very hard.

So in answer to your question, probably not, but then if you or someone you know owns a huge chunk of Scotland and you could shoot red or fallow deer, fish with impunity in the lochs and rivers etc you'd probably have more of a chance

 

[sam_acw]

I get the impression of groups travelling to seasonal peaks of food in Britain rather than foraging on the go.
Imagine 2 weeks of acorn processing, 2 weeks for hazels, pine nuts, salmon run etc. I think groups would have moved to gluts rather than foraged on the move. There is even some evidence of modern day hunter gatherer groups (I've no idea how common though) of eating a lot before travelling and not really hunting or gathering on the way. The idea being to save calories as it is hard to replace the calories and time lost when foraging in a sub-prime area

 

[crazydave]

hunter gathering only works in areas of plenty and the UK doesn't fill the criteria anymore (without breaking laws anyway) as you would be continuously stopping to refeed for a day or so both to feed for that day and if possible keep enough for tomorrow. survival wise you would eat little and often so catch it or pick it and eat it.In theory in would be possible but you would have to be proficient at hunting everything from birds to rats. I suppose if you went totally native then the average cow is at least an easy kill. in native cultures the women with an english survival instructor and tv crew in tow will go off digging roots and foraging berries while the men run off and fail to kill anything big enough to share. when they do its a treat otherwise its burdock nettle and snail stew for dinner again.

its possible to 'farm' an area if you stay long enough with eel traps, rabbit snares, deer snares/traps, squirrel poles and bird lines/traps but all take time to set up and often produce nothing. for a true forage then you would be living off plants with insects for protein as in a realistic survival situation. the seashore does produce the easiest feeding enviroment though once you've mastered it. most of the longer survival courses used to dump you on the coast as they knew you would be a bit more cheerfull knowing you could catch something.

 

[sam_acw]

its possible to 'farm' an area if you stay long enough with eel traps, rabbit snares, deer snares/traps, squirrel poles and bird lines/traps but all take time to set up and often produce nothing.

That's exactly what I was trying to say. Think of it as moving between areas of plenty, not subsiding on the way.

 

[firecrest]

I think it's terrible the way we are forced to live within the modern dietry perameters - i.e. agriculture or purchasing it. Whatever happened to freedom of choice?

Pah.

Truth be told, its the only acceptable form of gaining our dietry requirements. the country is to big to support even a fraction of the population if we gathered off the land.
A very good book to read (or documentary) is Guns Germs and Steel, which explains exactly how agriculture proliferates over hunter gathering.