Knowing which wilderness survival food to eat can be tricky to navigate. However, understanding the hierarchy of wilderness survival foods and how they operate will help us identify your foraging level and which foods are easily accessible to you.
Keep reading to find out more about the wilderness survival food hierarchy.
Wilderness Survival Foods Hierarchy
1. Berries, Shoots, Roots, Tubers, Flowers, and Wild Greens
The above is the most accessible survival foods you can find in the wilderness. To practice, it would be best if you get a simple guide and go foraging for some of these foods. It promises a fun experience and helps you identify wild edible plants.
Examples include wild strawberries, blueberries, Cactus, stinging nettles, cattails, chicory, day lily, lamb quarters, wild asparagus, watercress shoots, fiddlehead ferns, mints, burdock, water lily roots, bamboo shoots, wild onion, wild carrot, and thistle root.
2. Grains, Nuts, and Seeds
These are higher up wilderness foods pyramid because they’re easy to find or access. Sometimes, you will need to climb trees to get nuts before squirrels. For nuts like acorns, you have to soak them in water and remove the tannins before consuming them. Likewise, you will need to chew on wild grasses to get their juices and spit out the indigestible fiber.
Examples include Indian rice grass, amaranth, wild rice, walnuts, acacia, acorns, and pine nuts.
3. Insects
Some people consider insects as gross. But eating insects is typical in many countries as they’re so nutritious. Insects should be cooked like the meat to eliminate parasites before they’re consumed. Grasshoppers and crickets are two of the most edible insects around today.
Other examples include beetles, ants, termites, and earwigs.
4. Fish, Seafood, and Eggs
Catching fish, whether with a spear or bare hands, requires many skills. There are different animals to trap near the ocean, and if it’s within your talent, you will have to climb a tree to get eggs. But with a simple guide, you will know how to make a fish trap.
Examples include bird eggs, squid, clams, kelp, shrimp, crabs, and oysters.
5. Reptiles and Amphibians
With your bare hands, you can catch amphibians in streams, lakes, and smaller water bodies. Lizards are harder to detect because of their speed and hiding in tiny crevices. But because they’re everywhere, a trap helps you catch some.
More reptiles and amphibians include turtles, salamanders, lizards, frogs, and snakes.
6. Mushrooms
Although it’s essential to be cautious while eating mushrooms, as edible mushrooms resemble their poisonous, so don’t take any chances. With a guide and constant practice, you should identify edible mushrooms.
Examples include chanterelles, chicken of the woods, morels, etc.
7. Small Game and Birds
Again, with a guide and constant practice, you should learn to set traps for catching small game and birds. Examples include geese, quail, ducks, pigeons, mice, squirrels, and chipmunks.
8. Large Game
It takes skill to hunt big game. It would help if you also had patience, learned to use a rifle, and how to take a decent shot. But since it’s a survival situation, you will need to improvise with bows, spears, and arrows. Also, you need to know how to preserve your meat, but this also takes practice and knowledge.
Examples include elk, moose, deer, wild boar, and caribou.