Although shelters are not barriers against wildlife, they can be deter
rents. Even a flimsy nylon tent or roof of pine boughs may serve to confuse
the animal long enough to buy you time to decide your next move . . . at
least that’s the hope. In Africa, for example, I used thorn bushes to build a
5foothigh (1.5 m) thorn corral that effectively deterred curious lions from
getting too close. If the lions really had wanted to get me, the corral would
not have stopped them, despite the fact that thorns in Africa can grow to
be 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) long!
A survival partnerincrime with me for many an adventure, Doug
Getgood, relates this next story: “During a survival course I was on in Utah,
a group of students went to sleep in a substantial brush shelter, big enough
to fit a number of people. In the middle of the night, a large black bear
crept into the shelter, reached over two students and grabbed the one that
was ‘just right.’ Nobody even awoke until they heard her screams and she
was already halfway out the door, with the bear’s mouth clamped around
her ankle. They eventually scared off the bear, but clearly it had no fear and
understood the purpose of the door!”
Humans are creatures of habit, so one of the most comforting quali
ties we can hope for in a survival situation is familiarity. As soon as you
realize you’re lost, your entire world becomes unfamiliar, intimidating,
and scary. A shelter gives you “home.” And the sooner you start undertak
ing familiar tasks and routines, the sooner you begin to build confidence
and overcome your fear. Creating a shelter, big or small, is a significant
accomplishment that will boost both your mental and physical wellbeing.
You can also use a shelter as a place in which to plan operations, or as a
workshop for making survival aids.
Exactly what type of shelter you should build depends on your sur
roundings, the time of year, the climate, and the expected length of your
ordeal. You’re not going to make an Aframe, smalllog shelter in the sand
dunes of a desert, and you can’t build an igloo in the jungle. The ability to
make a successful shelter is not about memorizing methods thrown at you
in a book. It’s about understanding the basic characteristics of a good sur
vival shelter, and then using your abilities to improvise and invent.
One of my first survival teachers, Dave Arama, says, “Most lost per
sons become lost very late in the day . . . therefore, the ability to improvise
and build quickly, and have shelter items in a survival kit, are critical.”
(^142) | Survive!