Survival myths that could get you hurt

People should know not to take the things they see in movies and TV shows as fact, but with survival “reality” shows coming thick and fast there’s a very real chance someone might take the things they see seriously. If you do something during a survival situation because someone on a survival show did it for the cameras, then you’re just asking for trouble, so here are a few survival myths that could get you hurt that you should stay well away from.

It’s safe to dive off a cliff into water

It would be safe as long as the distance to fall isn’t too big, you land perfectly and there are no rocks or logs under the surface. These are things you won’t be able to tell by standing on a cliff looking over the edge, and even the clearest of waters can be deceptive in their depth. The World High Diving Federation recommends that no one dives from higher than 20 meters (65.5 feet) unless there are professional rescue divers in the water. Diving from this height could easily cause a number of injuries including broken bones and being knocked unconscious, with heights of 100 feet (30.48 m) or more guaranteeing serious harm for anyone who isn’t a trained high diver.

You can drink your own urine if you’re dehydrated

It very well could be safe to drink your own urine on occasion because the vast majority of it is just water. However, the rest of it is waste that your body is trying to get rid of, and reintroducing it into your system obviously isn’t going to be a good idea. Urine is sterile when it’s first made and consuming it right away is the safest time to drink it, but keeping it isn’t an option because of fast it goes bad. Each time urine is drank there is a risk of the bacteria in it causing you problems when consumed, and this effect is multiplied each time it is drank without consuming fresh water in between.

It’s safe to eat anything animals do

Just because something isn’t poisonous doesn’t mean it’s edible. Many animals in the wild eat grass which isn’t poisonous in the slightest, but the human stomach isn’t able to efficiently digest it and the result would be that you end up feeling very nauseous. Animals can live off what their bodies are designed to eat just like people do, but ultimately we are built differently so must eat differently.

It’s safe to eat raw meat and fish

Any kind of raw meat you’ll find being served professionally, like sushi or dried meats would have been prepared in such a way that makes it safe. A chef who hopefully knows what they are doing would inspect the meat to look for signs of spoilage or parasites before they classed it as safe and served it to someone. Meat or fish caught from the wild hasn’t gone through the same checks and didn’t come from a controlled source where the animals had certain diets and were treated with anti-pest medication. It can be perfectly safe to eat raw fish or red meat taken from a wild animal, but it also might contain parasitic worms that could end your survival journey faster than expected. Each time you eat raw meat from a wild source you are gambling between a meal and an illness.

It’s safe to go over a waterfall in a boat

No, no it isn’t. This is one of those common survival myths that could get you hurt in a big way, and unfortunately one of the most well-known. Too many times in movies we see the heroes rowing down a river and for some reason, they don’t notice the enormous 200-foot waterfall that can be heard from over a mile away until they are within spitting distance of the drop. Going over a waterfall in a boat always seems to work out well for them in the end, but in reality, it just gives the water another weapon to smash against you as it splinters to pieces at the bottom. Going over a waterfall is never safe, but going over one in a boat would be an even worse scenario.

You should always play dead if attacked by a bear

This one is partially true but only with one type of bear as a last resort. There are two main types of bears people encounter, the Grizzly bear which is a huge and powerful creature, and the smaller and more timid black bear. Whenever you see a bear you should always try to make yourself look big and shout a lot if you think it’s going to approach, but if it doesn’t work and it gets to you then what? With a Grizzly bear you should fight it only if you have a weapon and actually have a chance at winning, but if you’re unarmed then playing dead is your only option if it decides to attack you. The problem with this is that Grizzly bears can easily weigh more than a quarter ton, and they often check if things are dead by standing on them with huge clawed paws.

This is why playing dead should always be a last resort because the bear checking your dead could easily kill you, but you should only try to fight a grizzly if you have a realistic chance to win, which would mean either a firearm or some kind of spear. When it comes to black bears you should never play dead as they are much smaller and easier to injure. If you are charged by a black bear then punch it right in its stupid bear face and then punch some more. Using a branch or some kind of weapon is preferable but fighting it would give you a much better chance of survival than letting it walk all over your spine with its claws and trying to convince it you are dead.

All bugs are edible

Most bugs are edible if prepared correctly would be a more accurate statement. Crunchy insects like beetles and grasshoppers are much safer to eat raw than anything with a large amount of liquid innards, like caterpillars and snails. The larger the liquid content of the insect, the greater the chance of it being home to dangerous bacteria. They can be made safe by cooking but this isn’t always an option when at the stage you’re resorting to eating bugs.

Rubbing sticks together makes fire

This isn’t so much a survival myth that could get you hurt, but rather one that will waste your time. Friction fires take a lot of practice and aren’t quite as straightforward as rubbing two sticks together. If you’re relying on starting a fire by picking up a couple of sticks and rubbing them together, you’re going to be disappointed.

You can suck the venom out of a snakebite

When a snake injects venom it does so through its fangs which penetrate deep enough for the venom to enter the bloodstream. Sucking on the wound wouldn’t remove enough of the poison to make a difference, but it would add extra bacteria to the wound and get a little bit of poison in the mouth of the person trying to help.

You should urinate on a jellyfish sting

This one is pure myth and could actually make the stings worse. The idea was that the sterile urine would somehow make the pain created by toxins in the skin go away, but if this was true then people would have been using urine as a painkiller for some time by now. If barbs are still stuck in the skin, the urine could agitate them and cause them to excrete more toxins. The other reason is that as soon as you get stung, the toxins go into your blood and begin to move around your body, and peeing on the body part that got stung wouldn’t remove any of the toxins from your blood.