Water from Animals
Fish usually contain a drinkable fluid, although you have to be careful.
Large fish in particular will have a reservoir of water along the spine. You
don’t want to drink the juice from the flesh, however, as it is very rich in
protein, and digesting it actually depletes (rather than replenishes) your
body’s water stores.
Gross though it may seem, animal eyeballs contain water. Extract it
by cutting a small slice in the eyeball and sucking it.
Water from Urine
Few survival issues cause as much controversy as this one.
Some people are huge proponents of drinking urine—even in non-
survival situations! Urine therapy has been used in various cultures for
millennia. This therapy involves drinking urine or massaging it into one’s
skin for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. During the Renaissance, some
people even used urine to clean their teeth.
My feelings on drinking urine? Don’t do it! The primary dangers
come from its salt and toxin content (the same dangers apply to drink-
ing salty ocean water). The salt content (about 2 percent) tends to cause
further dehydration, so it’s a case of one step forward and two steps
back. Urine also contains metabolic waste by-products, such as formal-
dehyde, ammonia, and dissolved heavy metals. The less diluted it is, the
greater the concentration of the by-products you’ll be ingesting. There
are numerous documented cases of people dying from drinking their
own urine.
If any case, if you’re already dehydrated, you’ll produce little urine.
When I was surviving in the Kalahari Desert, the one time I did pee during
the week, I produced very little and it was a disgusting yellow-brown color.
A safer option than drinking your urine is using a solar still, as described
previously, to distill your urine.
Purifying and Filtering Water
THERE IS ONE HARD AND FAST RULE regarding water purification and filtra-
tion: If you have the ability and energy to do it, do it.
(^86) | Survive!