Stroll beyond the confines of your plush, modern life and you'll find the world to be a rather inhospitable place. In order to survive you'll need to learn from the toughest cultures on the face of our human planet. Do you have what it takes?
Written by Robert Lamb, HowStuffWorks.com
Could You Survive?
You find yourself adrift in a lifeboat off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Alone and starving, your best hope is to summon a shark and eat it before it can nibble on you. What equipment do the local shark callers use?
A spear and a bucket of fish guts
A rattle, a rope noose and a club
A thumper, two maker hooks and a net
A shark costume, a bottle of whiskey
All you'll need is a rattle, a rope, a club and, of course, the courage of a shark caller. The islanders of Papua New Guinea use the rattle to mimic the sound of feeding fish. When a shark swims up to investigate, they snare it with the noose and use the club to finish off the shark for food.
If you want a good meal in the mountains of Papua New Guinea be prepared to catch it yourself, just like you did with the shark. The Yangoru Boiken tribe strongly recommends the delicious fruit bat. What tools will you need to snare one?
A net and a machete
A large sack and a club
A hook and a ripe breadfruit
A torch and a spear
A net and a machete should do it. The Yangoru Boiken tribe clears huge patches of forest and then installs nets in the clearings to capture the giant fruit bats as they wing through.
Say goodbye to all that lushness. Now you're in the middle of the Sahara Desert, 150 miles (241 kilometers) from the nearest shred of civilization. In order to stay alive, you'll need to find a 10-foot (3-meter) well in the midst of the world's largest desert. How would the Tubu women of the Sahara manage this extraordinary feat?
Read the stars
Count the dunes
Look for landmarks
All of the above
You'll need all of these tools if you hope to drink from the life-giving oasis. The Tubu women count the larger dunes by day and chart their course by the stars at night, all the while looking out for the single bush that will clue them in to the well's location.
There's still no water in sight, and now it's the dry season in northern Kenya. How will you quench your thirst? Well, the Samburu camel herders manage to hunt down underground sources of water during this parched time. You're game to try their method. Which of the following is going to play a vital role in your search?
A vulture
A divining rod
Sandworms
Elephant poop
The elephant poop is key! Samburu camel herders follow the trail of dung to see just where these giants have been, because the elephants' sensitive noses allow them to sniff out buried water in otherwise dry creek beds. The herders simply follow along.
The kudu is better suited to life in the Kalahari Desert than you, so how might you go about catching and eating this wary antelope? The Ju/’hoansi bushmen have a few clever ideas. If you're going to try their method out, what will you need?
A rope, a stake, a cavern and a torch
A net, a dog, a pebble and a sling
A torch, a hut, a beetle and a dart
A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork
A torch, a hut, a beetle and a dart should do the job. The Ju/'hoansi bushmen burn the grass around a watering hole in order to see the approaching antelope and hide in a small camouflaged hut. When the kudu comes near, they shoot it with a dart tipped with poison from a beetle grub.
Perhaps you think you're a poison expert after the last question. Very well then. You'll need a poison-tipped blow dart to take down a howler monkey in the jungles of Brazil, but you'll also need to be on high alert to snare your prey. How do the Matis tribesmen sharpen their senses for the hunt?
A drop of tree-frog toxin in the eye
A drop of noxious plant juice in the eye
A drop of coca extract in the eye
A drop of coffee extract in the eye
The tree-frog toxin goes on the dart while the noxious plant juice goes in the eye. Don't make a rookie mistake. The Matis claim the juice sharpens their senses and focus their minds on the hunt.
A good dogsled is vital to survival in the frozen stretches of Greenland, which means keeping your dogs well fed. If you're aiming to emulate the Inuits of Saattut, what would you catch to feed your canine team?
a seal
a walrus
a polar bear
a shark
Yes, Greenland sharks are on the menu for the Saattut sled dogs. They catch them on the hook through a hole in the sea ice. All told, these sea creatures can grow up to 20 feet (6 meters) in length.
Sweets may be a dime a dozen where you come from, but you have to work for your honey out in the grasslands of East Africa. In fact, you'll have to employ a honey guide. Who or what is this?
a local holy man who tracks bees
a honey-craving beetle
a bird that can speak to humans
a wooden straw used to extract honey
Seriously, you'll have to talk to a bird to pull this off. The honey guide is in fact a bird that answers whistles from Masai tribesmen with a special call that it only uses to talk to humans. It sniffs out the honey and signals the Masai, who break into the beehive. Just remember to pay the honey guide in honeycomb and grubs. This is the arrangement.
Correct
Oh, dear. You would never survive in our planet's most extreme environments.
Correct
Not too shabby. However, you're not quite ready to face our planet's most extreme environments.
Correct
You, my friend, have what it takes to survive in our planet's most extreme environments. Congrats.
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