The numbers that compare
A number sticks when you can compare it to another. Every table sorts, filters, and reads as a chart — and every value has its source.
Be seen: distress signal comparison
From the voice to the satellite, the real range of every signal method — helping you pick the right signal based on what's in your pack and what time it is.
Cold, in degrees and minutes
A single temperature scale to compare three dangers: wind chill on exposed skin, cold water immersion, and the four clinical stages of hypothermia — along with the time you have left before it gets serious.
Deadly plants: doses, timeframes, and confusions
20 plants that kill, with their toxin, the dose that becomes lethal, the time before the first symptoms appear, and the edible plant they are confused with — to help you spot and avoid them, never to use them.
Documented Survival Records
18 extreme cases, from a 438-day shipwreck to a 24-minute breath-hold: what actually saved each person, with sources — not the urban legends.
Heat: Sneakier Than Cold
The heat index (feels-like temperature based on humidity) and the three stages of heat illness, from simple cramps to heatstroke that can kill in hours without cooling.
How fast do you actually travel in the field?
Real-world speed based on terrain, derived from Naismith's rule and military movement rate tables — to estimate travel time without getting caught out by nightfall.
How Much Does It Sting? The Pain Scale
The Schmidt sting pain index (0 to 4) for 21 stinging insects, supplemented by 9 venomous marine animals and arachnids: pain, duration, actual severity, and the field response that changes everything.
Identify and Assess Snakes
23 snakes from around the world: venom type, untreated lethality, onset of symptoms, and the key feature to distinguish them from a similar harmless species.
Survival entomophagy
Nutritional value, risks, and foraging yield of the best-documented edible insects — to help you decide which are worth the effort and which to avoid.
The real limits of the human body
Average durations and documented records before the body gives out — air, water, food, sleep, cold, avalanche, bleeding. All durations are converted to hours to remain comparable.
What every effort costs in calories
Energy expenditure by survival activity for a 70 kg person, based on Metabolic Equivalents (MET) from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities. Used to calculate how much you need to forage to cover a day of effort.
What to put in your survival kit, gram by gram
40 classic bushcraft items, compared down to the exact gram and euro: what gives you the most uses per gram carried, and what belongs to Canterbury's 10 Cs — the ten items no kit should ever miss.
What You Can Really Eat Outdoors
Nutritional value per 100 g of each survival food — plants, mollusks, fish, game, and insects — to compare what is actually worth the harvesting effort.
Which Animals Really Kill in the Wild?
The ranking of animals by annual human deaths worldwide, far from intuition: spectacular predators weigh little compared to disease vectors.
Which Fabric Will Keep You From Freezing to Death
13 materials compared on their dry and wet insulating power, drying time, and fire risk — backed by hard numbers to help you understand why "cotton kills".
Which fire starter should you choose?
12 methods to start a flame, from lighters to the bow drill: spark temperature, performance in the rain, weight, and real-time required for both beginners and experts.
Which method to make water drinkable?
What each method really eliminates (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, chemical contaminants), its cost in time, weight, and money — to choose before leaving, not when you're thirsty.
Which rope for which use?
Breaking strength, weight per meter, and resistance to water or UV for 17 ropes and cords, from dental floss to climbing rope — plus what each knot costs you in strength, calculated on 550 paracord.
Which shelter, in how much time?
14 shelters ranked by construction time for a single person, required gear, and resistance to wind, rain, or snow — to decide in 30 seconds what you can pitch before dark.
Which wood for which fire?
Calorific value, density, and drying time for 33 species from Europe, North America, and the boreal zone, plus three species with dangerous smoke — never burn them.