At what age would a human child be capable of surviving in the wild?
Simon Ritchie
Leatherhead, Surrey, UK
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Age isn’t the issue. It really depends on how wild the area is. Members of hunter-gatherer communities have to be very skilled to survive in their environment. People without those skills wouldn’t last long in such places without help.
When the fictional was stranded on a desert island, he had a shipload of useful equipment, including food, woodworking tools, a gun and ammunition. Without all that, he would have starved fairly quickly.
Lucy Irvine’s book (later made into a film) is the true story of her and her husband arranging to be stranded on a deserted island for a year. They took some food with them, but their plan to grow more wasn’t very successful. When a boat eventually arrived with aid, they were in very poor shape. They hardly knew each other at the start – they had to get married to be allowed onto the island together. In a radio interview I heard, Irvine suggested that anybody thinking about a similar trip should start by going on a camping holiday in Scotland and see how that goes.
Simon McLeish
Lechlade, Gloucestershire, UK
Where is the child? Assuming only earthly locations, the poles and equatorial deserts would be extremely hostile to anyone. Even more temperate environments can fairly rapidly lead to death from exposure or natural hazards, such as predators or the consequences of falls.
What will the child be equipped with? Without means of obtaining food – such as a knife, fish hooks and twine, a handbook of edible plants or the tools to make a spear or a bow and arrows – starvation would follow.
What knowledge can the child be expected to have? I presume giving them a survivalist guide is out of the question. Medical information suited to a wild environment would have to be available to address threats like eating poisonous or spoilt food, as well as sunburn or frostbite.
One of the most interesting books I read as a child was , about a 12-year-old boy living alone on a US mountain. Here, he finds shelter in a hollow tree, with a falcon and weasel as companions. He was – just – able to survive for months. But that is fiction.
Guy Cox
Sydney, Australia
That clearly depends on what the child in question knows about survival skills. Going back to former hunter-gatherer societies, children were taught hunting and foraging skills from a very young age. By ages 10 to 12, they knew how to make fire and so could probably survive.
If you were to take a city kid of the same age to the wild, their chances would be zilch, unless they had learned survival skills.
John Davidson
Ballina, New South Wales, Australia
Before I started school, I spent a lot of time on my own pottering around in the forest and creek area at the front of where we lived. It was too small for me to get lost. The only dangers were snakes, a threat I understood.
I found a bit of bush tucker in here, but not enough to support me. There was also no escaping the weather. Our home was the back-up for food, shelter and safety. I guess I could have safely spent a night there if I had to. However, it may have been a bit scary.
By contrast, many Aboriginal Australian children once had a different experience. For example, young children and older girls spent their time with women as they collect food, medicines, etc. The older boys spent time with men learning hunting, tracking and other skills. A common feature of many Aboriginal societies was that when young men were old enough, they were expected to for a while and use their skills to survive for a specified period.
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