The average American thinks they can survive for 16 days alone in the wilderness.
But... only 17 percent surveyed feel “very confident” in their ability to start a fire with flint. Just 14 percent feel the same about their ability to identify edible plants or berries in nature. While 52% are confident in their ability to identify different types of plants and trees, researchers put that to the test and discovered many weren’t quite as knowledgeable as they claimed. Only a quarter of respondents could identify a black oak leaf, while just 35 percent correctly spotted poison ivy when seeing it in a photo.