If you ever find yourself in a wilderness survival situation, your life could depend on the choices you make and the actions you take. Here are 5 tips to help increase your chances of survival.

Wilderness Survival Tip #1: At First, Do No Harm

This slogan is borrowed from the medical industry, but it also applies to survival. When you first realize that your survival is at stake, you want to be careful to do no harm - don’t make your situation worse.

Wilderness Survival Tip #2: Stay Calm & Be Rational

The worst thing you can do in a survival situation is to freak out or act rashly. The best thing to do is stay calm, ad carefully and rationally decide what to do. If it takes you 30 minutes to calm down and think things through, that’s OK (in most circumstances - if you are cold and wet, for example, you’ll need to act faster).

Deal with any emergency issues, such as injuries, then move on to take care of shelter, water, & food.

Wilderness Survival Tip #3: Shelter First

In most instances, your worst need will be shelter from the weather - cold and precipitation, usually. Find or create shelter before you find food or water.

Wilderness Survival Tip #4: Water Next

After you’ve taken care of your shelter, find water. You can live for a long time with no food, but you’ll only last a couple days without water.

Wilderness Survival Tip #5: Food Last

Once you have shelter and water taken care of, find food.

Being able to find food and water are critical skills if you ever find yourself in a wilderness survival situation.

Though difficult, finding food is by no means impossible. You should try as much as possible to sustain yourself with natural foods before dipping into your emergency survival kit rations. Reserve that for when you are in a barren dessert with not a shrub or tree in sight.

When in a wilderness survival situation, it is possible to live for long periods of time even with little or no food except during periods of extra activity and during winter when more food is necessary to maintain a normal body temperature.

During times when you do not have ready access to water you should restrict your food intake to carbohydrates only as they require less water for digestion as compared to proteins.

Avoiding poisonous plants

While most grass seeds are edible and can be consumed if you find yourself in dire straits, you should be careful about ingesting any unknown plants in the wilderness. If you cannot recognize the various types of berries that grow in the wild, better to stay away from red and white berries of all kinds. Several varieties are poisonous and you do not want to find out whether they are edible or not the hard way. Other plants that you are better off staying away from include any plants that resemble melons, cucumber or beans as they are often poisonous.

Have fire? …Eat Frogs

If you have fire and a pot AND you are not squeamish, the list of food you can choose from is endless. Did you know you that frogs, birds, lizards and snakes are all edible? All you need to do is remove the skin, head and entrails, add them to the pot and you’ve got a wholesome, nutritious meal that even your mother would approve of…or would she?

Being able to find food and water are highly critical skills if you ever find yourself in a wilderness survival situation. While it is possible to live with little or no food for extended periods of time, finding water is a code red emergency.

An individual requires a minimum of two to three cups of water daily in order to maintain health. If you are stuck in the wild and water is scarce, it is most important that you immediately take all measures to conserve the available water in your body by not engaging in activities that promote water loss.

During spring months, when water is found in abundance, finding drinking water is not all that difficult. As a rule, running water from streams or springs situated in more isolated areas is safer for consumption than water from stagnant areas such as ponds and sloughs. Waters that are procured from stagnant sources are generally disease-carrying and have to be either boiled or treated with water purifying chemicals before they are potable. It is safest to treat all water before you drink, it but sometimes you may not be able to.

Carrying a water purification pump is highly recommended; if you have one you can purify any water no matter where it is sourced from and you then don’t need to be burdened with carrying heavy bottles of water along.

In winter, you should look for water that lays beneath the ice layer, or snow. You should heat the water if possible, to avoid lowering your body temperature.

If you like to hunt, camp, fish, or other outdoors activities, you know what it means to survive in the cold and deal with the elements. Perhaps you’ve been in a “survival situation” and the only reason you made it out alive was because you were able to jump in your truck and head back to your luxurious life of comfort.

What if you were stuck in the wilderness, though? What if you got lost in the middle of nowhere? How long would you last? Could you survive in the wilderness?

Here are some basic survival supplies to keep on hand, plus some wilderness survival tips. Keep more in the back of your truck or whatever vehicle you normally use on outdoor trips.

#1: Keep a source of light on hand. A flashlight is one example, but candles are great too. But remember, such a resource needs replenishment. Flashlights need additional batteries (rechargeable ones won’t help if you have no power source!) and candles require a lighter or matches. Keep the extra batteries and lighters or matches in your kit. Your best bet is a solar powered flashlight as well, but matches/lighters can come in handy for other reasons (like starting a fire) so keep those on hand regardless.

#2: Keep extra blankets and clothing ready; you never know when it will get cold or when you might get wet. Store everything in a waterproof bag. There are space bags and waterproof bags that can keep your supplies from being degraded by the elements. This is essential.

#3: A first-aid kit is essential. Off-the-shelf kits are good, so buy one of those. However, they might not have enough supplies for a long period of time (and buying multiples from the store would become expensive). After buying one first-aid kit, note what it contains and buy large amounts of each supply from a discount or dollar store, and keep them in a small box. Label it First Aid in case you or anyone else needs it and forgets what’s inside. Even basic toiletries like tissue, soap, shampoo, etc. can be good to include.

#4: Non-perishable food and a way to open it (like canned goods and a can opener) will be crucial. Avoid boxed items or other products that might be tainted by insects or weather, in time. Don’t forget water. Rinse used plastic milk jugs thoroughly, and refill with tap water.

#5 Keep a universal army knife in your kit. You might want to include a larger knife and some heavy-grade scissors.

A universal global phone of some sort, GPS device (or at least a cell phone) is important as well. Being able to phone for help would be very important. Bring extra batteries!

Wilderness survival is nothing to laugh at - if you are ever stuck in the wilderness, you’ll be glad if you took the time to prepare yourself for the possibility beforehand. Incidentally, you can also attend a wilderness college / school and learn skills that will help you survive in the wild.