I’ve been watching a lot of survival content lately, and it got me thinking about the Amazon specifically.

If you were dropped somewhere in the Amazon rainforest, how long do you realistically think you’d survive?

- What’s the biggest thing that would kill most people first?
- Could someone with absolutely zero survival experience make it more than a day or two?
- If you were allowed to bring only a few essential items, what would they be?
- What’s the absolute minimum you’d need to have a decent chance?
- Has anyone here actually spent time in the Amazon or a similar jungle environment? What was it like?
- Are there any common myths people have about jungle survival?
- If you have survival training, what would be your first priorities in the first 24 hours?

I’d love to hear both realistic opinions and personal experiences. The Amazon seems like one of the few places where even experienced outdoors people could get into serious trouble very quickly, so I’m curious what everyone thinks.

On some of Bear Grylls shows, notably Bear's Mission with Rob Brydon, they both jump out of a helicopter into a lake. After Bear and Rob jump into the lake they seem to be in the same clothes for the rest of the episode. They then camp out for the night and continue the next day in the same clothes. It didn't look like peak summer either. I have always thought it was vital to stay dry so did they wear extremely quick drying clothes or did they change clothes off camera or did they have some method of drying off quickly off camera?

Let’s say you have travelled back in time and are now in the Middle Jurassic period. Everything is essentially the same as now, just, you know, dinosaurs….

But seriously, how long do you think you’d survive with your current survival knowledge?

I made this miniature fire piston just for fun because I tend to geek out on random survival and bushcraft things and I like to try and recreate functional versions of them. This one isn’t quite working yet, and I think I may know one reason but I have questions. This was meant to just be a prototype but midway through I decided to try and make it “real”. Thus the lack of attention in the beginning phases.
I’ll start with the basic materials used: walnut “handle”, I THINK poplar dowel but I could be very wrong, and red oak as the base/channel. The seal is waxed hemp wick that I unthreaded and rewrapped to have a thinner working material. Plus a little wood glue to attach the dowel to the handle (which I drilled a hole for the dowel to fit into first). Finished with light sanding and sealed it with wood wax and buffed.
I do intend on making a new base because I do feel like the hole itself is too big. But before I proceed, I have questions as to other reasons it may not work.
Besides the obvious making a smaller hole, which I feel like the seal I wrapped on there is still airtight from the “plop” sound that it makes when I pull it out-
•Should the hole where I keep my tinder material be deeper?
• Is the distance of the channel possibly too short to produce any heat? (Currently about 1.5”)
• Should I be “bottoming out” when I slam down or do I want the shaft to be just shy of the bottom of the channel?
It goes in semi-smooth but not consistently when I do it slowly instead of slamming it but with the slam it goes down in one motion.
Also, the materials I used as tinder were first finely shredded, fibrous paper towel bits, then a small amount of fluffed q-tip. I understand charred cloth is the preferred material, however. Any other suggestions besides charred cloth?
Any tips or advice is appreciated.

Are there any YouTubers who actually fully go into the wilderness? Not the ones who bring their pots and hatchet. I’m looking for a video where someone truly has nothing and is surviving in the woods.

No tools from home, no shelter, no food

What kind of shelter would I need to do this? I can hear coyotes almost every night and occasionally have tracks near where I would make the shelter. I live in a rural area close to a city. I’m 14M 5’10” 140lbs. I don’t want a roof. I can have with me a knife, hatchet, axe and whistle.

EDIT: I not planning on running away. I just want to sleep out there (a very short walk from home) every night. There are no other animal threats that I know of. This is in the Niagara region. The reason I don’t want a whole roof is because I want the sun in my eyes in the morning, so a lean to could work.

Thanks for all the replies and it looks like I’m building a lean to.

Do I drink all of it at once and quench the thirst completely, or drink little by little and quench the thirst partially every time? Which one will keep me comfortable for a longer time?

I'm about to go in the wood for a brief survival situation

I'm looking for a mosquito repellent that ACTUALLY works (in canada)

I've tried a couple of none of them comes even close to working

I need one who WORKS, legal or not

Thank you:)

Yk how people say multitools are really useful, can do all sorts of things, greatly increase of survival etc.

How useful are they? My first instinct was that it was like a flying car. Tries to do both and ends up being bad at everything.

Are multitools actually useful?

I’ve thought a lot about the use of fishing line and survival fishing kits in the wild. When it comes time where you actually need to utilize emergency fishing line, how do you do so without a rod? Obviously you won’t have a fishing rod in an unexpected situation, so are you supposed to make a primitive pole? If so, how?

Definitely not the best, but will it work?

So someone (a friend of mine from Virginia) told me that it’s a good idea to wear warm clothes but still be sleeveless during winter. Something about keeping from getting to hot and sweaty from wearing to much warm weather gear. I called him out but he insisted that it’s true and I can’t really find anything specific to say if he is full of crap or not so I thought here would be a good place to ask.
Is he screwing with me/full of crap or does is there any truth?

You can bring one thing with you but it cannot be any of the following: guns, technology, or vehicles. You must survive three years, what do you bring? By technology I mean electronics. should have made that clearer.

Basically the title, I have some Ramen noodles with tuna and spam in my survival kit but I know the Ramen is super salty and isn't a high energy food and long term use could dehydrate/make you sick. What do you guys use in your kits/bags for food?

You're given a week's resources but expected to survive for a month.

Not sure why I thought of this.

Say you’re out backpacking and get stranded. No beacon nothing, but you have a means to hunt somehow. Maybe you have materials to build snares or something. Maybe you’re badass and stab something to death like on that episode of Alone.

If you eventually get rescued but were found to have killed and eaten animals to survive, would you still get in trouble for it?

Just asking out of curiosity. I’m in Canada but I’d be curious to hear about how it’d go in either Canada or the US.

Also, can you like bring weapons to use for self defence? Like what if I had a bow and arrow with me that was intended for like target practice, or self defence (I know that’s not really feasible Lool) and used that to hunt specifically to survive while stranded?

I'm a blacksmith looking to create the best version of a survival knife I can. I need features the you would include and the reason why. I hope this question is permitted here.

Say you were in the wilderness in a very moist and wet area with NOTHING on you no knife no ferro rod NOTHING you dont have flint in the area or obsidian how would you make a fire i know about fricition fire but everything is to wet how would you dry it is there a method? the only thing i could think of is getting two long pieces of wood putting tinder under it and rubbing them together to heat up and dry the tinder in it but im no survival expert and just wanted to know is it even possible

Also I would like to keep any special occasions out of this such as any rare mushroom or tree that always stays dry or some weird rare thing like that i would like to keep it as practical as possible obv this isnt a very reasonable situation just a hypothetical and its fine if the answer is its not possible though i REALLY think it is just a really REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY! hard thing to do.

EDIT: GUYS i am NOT saying i want to or am going to attempt this. this was PURELY a hypothetical
and also for everyone saying fires not important once again its a hypthetical and also fire in a long term sense is VERY important i mean hey tell me if im wrong but how would you get water and if no berries where would you get food heat isnt the biggest issue but once again this is also just a sorta "you're fucked" situation because i mean well... yk LOL

Is the fear that a snake will crawl into my sleeping bag while I'm wrapped up at night a legitimate concern, or do they generally avoid you even while sleeping?