The Wilderness Living honor prepares a Pathfinder to spend days outdoors safely: finding and treating water, following compass bearings, calling for help, choosing shelter and caring for someone hurt far from town. Here are the 14 requirements in brief, what to study for the items that have no guide of their own on this portal and a plan for the two campouts, with the full wording in the complete Wilderness Living honor requirements in the catalog.
What is the Pathfinder Wilderness Living honor?
The Wilderness Living honor has the code AR-024 and belongs to the Recreational Activities area. According to the catalog entry, it is skill level 2 and was created in 1956 by the General Conference, the world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Wilderness Living is its English name; in Portuguese it is called Vida Silvestre.
Despite the Portuguese name, which literally means wildlife, only one of the 14 requirements deals with animals, the one on tracks; the rest cover water, shelter, navigation, signals and first aid.
The official card for Excursionista na Mata, the advanced Voyager class for 14-year-olds, published by the Adventist Church, lists completing the Wilderness Living honor as requirement 11. The honor has a prerequisite of its own: the Intermediate First Aid honor, which should come at the start of the schedule.
What are the Wilderness Living honor requirements?
The catalog card has 14 requirements: nine ask you to do something in the field, one mixes study and demonstration, and four ask you to know or explain something. The table sums up each one without answers, because the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (2020 edition) forbids answered honors and wants Pathfinders to find the answers by studying.
Requirements 2 and 12 (getting lost and distress signals) have their own guide in what to do if you get lost on the trail, and requirement 8 in edible and toxic plants in the woods. Requirement 8 carries the most risk on the card: eat only a plant that an expert in the local flora has identified with certainty, with the Instructor beside you; when in doubt, do not eat it.
| No. | What the card asks | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Two campouts of two nights each | Practice |
| 2 | Five things to do when lost and three ways to find the cardinal points without a compass | Knowledge |
| 3 | Three ways to purify water | Practice |
| 4 | Three ways to find water in the forest, two demonstrated | Mixed |
| 5 | Two methods for tree height and two for stream width | Practice |
| 6 | Tracks of four wild animals or birds | Practice |
| 7 | Compass course of more than 1,200 meters, three azimuths, error of 5% or less | Practice |
| 8 | Identify, prepare and eat ten wild plants | Practice |
| 9 | 15-item survival kit, knowing how to use each one | Practice |
| 10 | Value of sleep, diet, hygiene and exercise | Knowledge |
| 11 | Intermediate First Aid and eight field problems | Knowledge |
| 12 | Two ways to signal for help | Practice |
| 13 | Walk silently and hide | Practice |
| 14 | Shelter in heavy snow, rocky areas, swamps and forests | Knowledge |
Summary of the AR-024 card; the official wording is in the South American Division Honors Manual.
How do you train for the Wilderness Living compass course?
Requirement 7 is the most technical: a course of more than 1,200 meters, set up by the Instructor, with at least three azimuths (the angle, measured from north, that gives your bearing) and an error of 5% or less, which the card itself translates as 60 meters for 1,200. The General Conference's English wording asks for only more than 100 yards (91.4 meters).
Two errors add up. The bearing error grows with distance: by trigonometry, each degree off course moves you about 17 meters off the line for every 1,000 meters, and 3 degrees over 400 meters already costs about 21 meters, more than a third of the margin.
The distance error usually weighs more. The US Army land navigation manual (FM 3-25.26, from 2001) names it the most common source of error in navigation and says to know how many paces you take in 100 meters, on ground similar to the test course, since slopes, sand, mud and rain shorten your pace.
To practice, use the back azimuth: add or subtract 180 degrees and walk the leg in reverse. Getting back to the starting point shows that your pace count and your bearing are in tune.
How do you find water in the wilderness?
Requirement 4 asks you to know three ways to find water and demonstrate two. The US Army survival manual (FM 21-76, from 1992, since superseded, also published by the Marine Corps as MCRP 3-02F) points out that, even in cold weather, each person needs at least 2 liters a day.
The first way is to read nature. According to the manual, animal trails that converge usually lead to water, grain-eating birds fly low and in a straight line when heading to drink, and ants climbing a tree trunk may point to water in a hollow. Carnivores and birds of prey are not reliable clues.
Another is dew, collected before sunrise with cloths tied around your ankles while walking in boots through wet grass. Near a muddy river, a hole dug in the sand about 1 meter from the bank fills with clearer water. And the bag still, with nonpoisonous green leaves chosen by the Instructor, yields half a liter to a liter in about 24 hours in the sun, according to the manual.
What goes in a 15-item personal survival kit?
Requirement 9 has two halves: having the kit and knowing how to use each item. The second weighs more, because gear you have never tested fails right when you need it.
FM 21-76 sums up the logic: the environment decides the items, each piece should serve more than one purpose, and the kit should be waterproof, durable and easy to carry on your body. The table matches the manual's functions with the Ten Essentials of the US National Park Service (NPS).
Before the test, use everything at least once: light it, blow it, set it up, fold it.
| Function | What it is for | Club precaution |
|---|---|---|
| Navigation | Knowing where you are | Tested compass, kept away from metal |
| Signaling | Being found | Whistle attached to your body |
| Water | Treating wild water | Tablets within their expiration date |
| Fire | Warming up and boiling | Only with an adult and under Club rules |
| Shelter | Staying dry and warm | Emergency blanket or large plastic bag |
| First aid | Cuts, blisters and stings | Medicine only with parents' approval |
| Light and repair | Night and fixes | Batteries, cord and tape |
Kit functions according to FM 21-76 and the NPS Ten Essentials; you choose the 15 items with the Instructor.
What field first aid does Wilderness Living require beyond Intermediate First Aid?
Requirement 11 lists eight situations. Hypothermia, heatstroke, exhaustion (heat exhaustion, in the English wording) and dehydration are covered in the guide on hypothermia, heatstroke and dehydration at camp. For snakebite, UNA-SUS, part of Brazil's Ministry of Health, advises no tourniquet, cutting or suction: wash with soap and water, keep the person lying down and still, and get medical care (in Brazil, SAMU 192 or the Fire Department 193).
Altitude sickness strikes people who climb too fast. According to the CDC, the US public health agency, anyone who is not acclimatized and goes to sleep at 2,450 meters or higher, sometimes even lower, is at risk, and children are as susceptible as adults. The main sign is a headache with loss of appetite, dizziness, fatigue or nausea. Never go higher to sleep with symptoms, and descend if they get worse.
The poisonous bushes on the card are poison ivy and poison oak in the English wording. In Brazil, the classic example is a tree known there as aroeira-brava (Lithraea molleoides): a 2010 article in the Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia (Brazilian Annals of Dermatology) describes it causing dermatitis in sensitive people who simply walk or lie down under the tree, and says the aroeira-pimenteira, or Brazilian peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius), does not cause the problem. For poison ivy, whose substances the article compares to those of the aroeira, the CDC advises washing the skin right away with soap and water and washing the clothes separately.
An infected wound often starts as a forgotten scratch. The NHS, the UK's public health service, advises rinsing the cut with clean water, covering it with a sterile dressing and getting help if it swells, turns red, hurts more or leaks pus, or if a fever starts.
How do you build a survival shelter in snow, rocks, swamps and forests?
Requirement 14 only asks for an explanation, with nothing to build. On any terrain, FM 21-76 says to stay away from flash flood and rockslide areas, from banks below the high-water mark, and from loose rocks, dead branches or trees that could fall.
The step-by-step for a leaf hut is in the guide on survival shelters without a tent. One detail from the manual: ravines and stream beds look sheltered, but they collect cold night air and more insects.
| Terrain | Main risk | What the shelter solves |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy snow | Heat loss and carbon monoxide from a flame in a closed shelter | Getting below wind level, insulating your body from the ground and keeping a vent open |
| Rocky areas | Loose rocks and caves with bats, whose powdered droppings carry disease | Crevices and rocks on the side sheltered from the wind |
| Swamps | Soaked ground and rising water | A bed raised above the flood level |
| Forests | Dead branches, insects and cold in low spots | Flat, slightly raised ground with insulation under your body |
Principles from the FM 21-76 manual (US Army, 1992) for the requirement 14 terrains.
How do you plan the campouts and get ready for the test?
Requirement 1 asks for two campouts of two nights each. Under the Administrative Manual, sleeping in a school, a hall or a house counts as an indoor camp (acantonamento), a term the manual keeps separate from camping. A bivouac, a night in the open without a manufactured tent, is great shelter practice and requires written permission from the parents or guardians of minors.
In general, the manual says, an honor can be completed within three months, in small groups and in the setting of the subject; so book the campouts early.
Requirement 13 turns into an animal-watching game. FM 21-76 teaches steps half the normal length: the outer edge of the ball of your foot touches the ground, you feel for twigs, and only then do you lower your heel. Quick movements and a silhouette on a hilltop give you away; approach through the shadows, with the wind blowing from the animal toward you.
Requirement 10 is also learned by camping. According to the CDC, children aged 6 to 12 need 9 to 12 hours of sleep a day, and teens aged 13 to 17 need 8 to 10; the Administrative Manual asks that sleep hours be respected on overnights.
For testing, the manual calls for more practical weight in an honor like this one, without neglecting theory. Before you set the date, check the complete Wilderness Living honor requirements.