How to Die in the Outdoors: From Bad Bears to Toxic Toads, 110 Grisly Ways to Croak

by Buck Tilton, Robert Prince (Illustrator)

Overview

By living a normal, boring life like most people do, one has an excellent chance of becoming yet another statistic on the proverbial list of the leading causes of death. Of course, the process can be accelerated a bit by eating lots of fat, giving up exercise, smoking, drinking heavily (not water), and worrying. Buck Tilton prefers to ponder the alternatives. In How to Die in the Outdoors, he presents us with 110 far more interesting and unique ways to perish: snake bite, elephant foot, walrus tusk, rhino horn, and many, many more.

In a straightforward style laced with his trademark wit, and presented in easy to understand terms, Tilton describes not only the details of how one can die, some intriguingly gory and all based—more or less—on facts, but also the ways to avoid death should life-threatening situations arise in which one is not ready to check out of this world and into whatever afterlife there may be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762757985
Publisher:	Falcon Guides
Publication date:	10/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Buck Tilton, a wilderness medicine expert, is a columnist for Backpacker magazine. His many FalconGuides, which include Wilderness First Responder and Backcountry First Aid and Extended Care, have sold more than 100,000 copies combined. He is also the author of two books under The Globe Pequot Press's how-to imprint Knack, including Knack Hiking and Backpacking. He teaches for the Wilderness Medicine Institute at the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Read an Excerpt

Early symptoms of rabies are too general to cause too much concern: fatigue, headache, irritability, depression, nausea, fever, stomach pain. Sounds like another day in the office. There is only one way for sure to know if you have the disease. You die! But first: wild hallucinations . . . extremely painful difficulty swallowing . . . frequent muscle spasms . . . and, toward the end, complete disorientation and a raging fever.

*

Alligators are experts at attacking. Swimming below the surface of the water, only eyeballs exposed, they silently approach their prey, gambling everything on one swift and merciless attack. If the attackee happens to be you, your first awareness of danger will most likely be the snapping of powerful jaws as they close over a bite-able body part. . . .

Table of Contents

1 Attacked by Alligator

2 Altitude: Too High to Handle

3 Anaconda: The Hug of Death

4 Annihilated by Army Ants

5 Abused by Avalanche

6 Bagged by Barracuda

7 Bombarded by Bee

8 Buffaloed by Bison

9 Butchered by Black Bear

10 Beaten by Black Widow

11Baffled by Bouga Toad

12 Blasted by Buffalo

13 Bullied by Bull Shark

14 Chewed by Camel

15 Canned by Candiru

16 Croaked by Cane Toad

17 Carved Up by Cannibal

18 Cornered by Cape Hunting Dogs

19 Capped by Carbon Monoxide

20 Castrated by Cassowary

21 Censured by Centipede

22 Cheated by Choking

23 Sunk by Ciguatera

24 Captured by Giant Clam

25 Clobbered by Cobra

26 Conenose Bug: The Kiss of Death

27 Conked by Cone Shell

28 Cramped by Constipation

29 Corralled by Coral Snake

30 Consumed by Cougar

31 Cracked by Crab

32 Crunched by Crocodile

33 Cursed by Curare

34 Deadly Nightshade: The Big Sleep

35 Drained by Diarrhea

36 Ended by Earthquake

37 Electric Eel: The Shocking Truth

38 Eliminated by Elephant

39 Finalized by Frog

40 Fooled by Frozen Water

41 Flattened by Funnel-Web Spider

42 Held Up by Gila Monster

43 Grabbed by Gorilla

44 Gobbled by Great White Shark

45 Gutted by Grizzly

46 Hammered by Hammerhead

47 Hung Up on Hantavirus

48 Heat Stroke: Too Hot to Handle

49 Hassled by Helminth

50 Harrassed by Hippopotamus

51 Hounded by Hyena

52 Hypothermia: The Big Chill

53 Jumped by Jellyfish

54 Jimsonweed: The Big Trip

55 Killed by Killer Whale

56 Kreamed by Komodo Dragon

57 Latched Onto by Leech

58 Leaped On by Leopard

59 Laid Low by Leptospirosis

60 Lit Up by Lightning

61 Lunched On by Lion

62 Licked by Lyme Disease

63 Manhandled by Mamba

64 Misguided by Manchineel

65 Mangled by Man-of-War

66 Massacred by Moccasin

67 Muffled by Monkshood

68 Messed Up by Moose

69 Murdered by Mosquito

70 Misled by Mushroom

71 Outwitted by Octopus

72 Offed by Oleander

73 Obliterated by Ostrich

74 Partaken Of by Piranha

75 Put Away by Plague

76 Pulverized by Polar Bear

77 Poisoned by Puffer Fish

78 Quenched by Quicksand

79 Ravaged by Rabies

80 Ripped by Rattlesnake

81 Ruined by Recluse

82 Rubbed Out by Red Tide

83 Wrecked by Rhinoceros

84 Stung by Scorpion

85 Screwed by Screwworm Fly

86 Snuffed by Scuba

87 Savaged by Seal

88 Silenced by Sea Snake

89 Slain by Siberian Tiger

90 Swallowed by Sperm Whale

91 Felled by Spotted Fever

92 Squished by Squid

93 Stunned by Stonefish

94 Suffocated by Submersion

95 Terrified by Taipan

96 Tampered With by Tapir

97 Trapped by Tetanus

98 Torn Apart by Tiger Shark

99 Twisted by Tornado

100 Tricked by Trichinosis

101 Tucked In by Tsetse Fly

102 Tswept Away by Tsunami

103 Tortured by Tularemia

104 Vanquished by Vampire Bat

105 Vaporized by Volcano

106 Wasted by Walrus

107 Wiped Out by Warthog

108 Water Hemlock: Tea for Tomb

109 Wilted by West Nile

110 Withered by Wildfire