You may have some water, whether on hand, or after finding a source of it somewhere on the desert, but what about food? You should have no issues for sometimes with the energy food you packed, as your body will survive for much longer without food than it would without water. Even if you don’t have any food (Although not recommended), you will also be all right.
But on the off chance that you instead find yourself in a survival situation where you need to find food for yourself to keep yourself alive, your chances may seem slim, but survival is not impossible. The question then is, what can you find in what seems to be a barren wasteland?
Note: This article will be running under the assumption that you have found a proper source of water in the desert. Finding water should be a number one priority in a place as hot as a desert, and not having enough of it can lead to severe dehydration in as little as three hours. It doesn’t help that your body also uses water to digest food, making you thirstier if you prioritize finding food over water. For those reasons, make sure to only focus on food after you have secured your water.
Find a cactus
Cactus water, as it turns out, is not water at all, but a liquid filled with lots of alkali. So much alkali, in fact, that it will give you a lot of stomach problems if you try to drink it, which is why it is best left alone.
Cactus fruit, on the other hand, is perfectly safe and edible to consume. Some of them even taste great and will give you some nutrients to help keep you trucking on. Luckily, all cactus fruit are safe to eat, so finding any cactus on your scavenging trips that have fruit on them is great in helping you survive.
If you find multiple, you can pick them and save them for your journey as well. And as a nice bonus, these fruits give you some hydration. Not as much as your body actually needs, but enough to give it a much-needed boost.
Watch bodies of water
While you need to drink water to maintain your bodily functions, animals need to as well. Some may not need water as much as others, thanks to evolution and biology helping them adapt to the desert, but some require to be visit bodies of water consistently to keep them alive.
Everything from coyotes to birds to rodents need water in their bodies. Even creatures that do not need water for long amounts of time will eventually emerge from their hiding spots because they need water in their system.
You can take advantage of this by keeping watch around a watering hole or a pond and waiting until after the sun goes down. This is because animals that live in arid climates sleep through the heat of the day (to avoid the heat of the sun) and become hunters at night.
Search for mounds and holes for insects and lizards
Dirt mounds and holes may house an insect or lizard inside, taking shelter from the desert environment. You can usually prompt them out by poking the inside with a stick but be careful while doing so, as you may instead find yourself poking a scorpion!
It is best to keep a slight distance away, but not too far to ensure that the animal or insect inside the hole doesn’t get away if it is not hostile.
Set traps to catch animals
Humans are not really built for hunting in the wild, much less a desert, and you are unlikely to have something like a hunting rifle or bow with you out on the desert, so hunting and chasing down animals may likely be a waste of energy.
Instead, choose to lay down traps. For instance, while scorpions are dangerous when you are near their dens, you can trap them by digging a hole in front of their dens to catch them with a basket made out of twigs once they try to move out.
Otherwise, a basket with spikes on the bottom will do just as well. The spikes are meant to prevent animals from escaping. You can put fruit as bait if you wish to have a higher chance of attracting something.
Wrapping Up
You will need to change your strategy to survive in such a harsh environment. It is certainly not impossible, but it definitely is a challenge in what seems like an unforgiving environment.
Another thing. Should you be successful in catching animals, make sure that you cook them properly. Lizards are known for having salmonella, something you can get from undercooked chicken, which is something you absolutely do not need in the desert.
Finally, avoid plants that you don’t know. Barring cactuses, plant life that you are unsure of may actually be toxic and dangerous without you knowing.
The best way you can go about eating plants that you don’t know is to use the Universal Edibility Test, but this should only be reserved for really desperate times because of the effort it takes to test one. Plus, you need to make sure that there are a good number of plants in the vicinity before you start testing, to ensure that you don’t run out so sun should you find them edible.