Talk Without Speaking

You may or may not be familiar with the SAS Survival Handbook but it is Britain’s elite military’s units guide to, yes, survival. Increasingly popularized there are now, I found out, SAS Survival cards. I’m not sure if these are meant to be carried with you or sorted through to see if you might need to be reminded that you are in a situation where you could use some SAS survival tips. In any event, after walking into Braddlee’s office, he asked me to pick a card at random. He even let me keep it. Here is my survival information and perhaps you will find it useful as well.

How to Escape From a Mountain Lion
1) Try to make yourself appear bigger by opening your coat.
The lion is less likely to attack a larger animal.

2) If the lion behaves aggressively, throw stones.
Convince the lion that you are not prey.

3) If you are attacked, fight back
Most mountain lions are small enough that an average size human can ward off an attack. Do not curl up and play dead.

Now being fairly outdoorsy and never having come across a mountain lion I’m not sure when this will come in handy but is struck me today that this advice could equally be applied to many different kinds of predators and not just the four-legged kind that want to hunt and eat you.

Having been down and out in Boston this last week, the “Do not curl up and play dead.” recommendation seems especially sound advice.