Where on Earth is it easiest to survive in the wilderness?
In which wilderness area on modern-day Earth would it be easiest for a lone human to survive year-round? What resources are available there and what tools and skills would be necessary? What is the approximate minimum age necessary for this person to survive there?
Now. that being the essence of the question, there are some caveats:
This person will not be attacked by hostile creatures regardless of whatever creatures that are potentially hostile to humans exist there. Lions or tigers or bears, etcetera...? Not a problem.
The person in question begins with no special clothing, and can be assumed not to risk suffering from sunburn or Vitamin D deficiency.
They will initially have no tools, and must make any tools required from local resources.
This person will have the necessary skills and physical prowess to survive in the chosen location, however I would like to select the location in order to minimise the skills necessary.
This person may survive by any necessary combination of hunting and gathering using only self-made tools of any complexity achievable by a lone human with no external assistance. They may be assumed to come pre-prepared with all the necessary skills and training, and need not learn new skills in-situ. However, they will only have the minimum skills required, as per my previous point.
Regardless of any other physical abilities this person may need, they will have a level of health and fitness that will make persistence hunting a viable option.
I would like to minimise this individual's initial age. They may be assumed to have the necessary skills and mental discipline to survive in the selected location regardless of their age, so please treat age as a purely physical limitation rather than a mental and physical limitation.
Any wilderness on modern-day earth may be selected provided that it has no significant permanent human population.
What does this have to do with world building? Nothing in itself, other than the presence of this character who would otherwise not be there, but the location affects how the story may potentially develop. Answers to this question will serve as a starting point from which a different world will be built as the story is told. A person surviving by fishing in a tropical lagoon starts a story rather differently to one where this person survives by hunting and gathering in a temperate forest.
EDIT
What do I mean by "no significant permanent human population"? Pretty much that the person in question could go unobserved there by other humans (not that they may not observe other humans) for a period of at least one full year.
Also, areas with below-freezing temperatures are not off-limits as long as there is sufficient time and resources for an unprotected human to fashion the clothing necessary to survive such conditions. They may be considered to start with shorts and a T-shirt, but - especially considering their youth - may either wear out or outgrow these, and if necessary replace them with whatever they need and can make themselves.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/154455. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
San Nicolas Island
San Nicolas Island is part of the Channel Islands of California. The weather is lovely year round (some rain but no extremes of temperature).
(By Lencer - own work, used:Google EarthUSA California location map.svg by User:NordNordWest for MinimapIdea: Californian Channelislands.jpg by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6444044)
People lived there for 10,000 years and did quite well. There's plenty of food and water and enough resources to make tools, shelter, and clothing.
When the native people to the island were forcibly evacuated 200 years ago, one young woman was left behind and lived there alone for 18 years. This is a quite famous story which was fictionalized in the popular middle-grade (children's) novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. In the book she starts off as a teen but it's unclear how old the real life woman was.
In the last 100 years or so, the island has not been treated well. The ecosystem was ravaged by sheep (removed in 1943) and cats (brought by the navy in the 1950's and now eradicated). If it is abandoned in your story then there may be tools and materials left behind your character can use.
There are multiple other islands that are part of the Channel Islands of the Los Angeles/Santa Barbara coast. Of the 8 islands, only one, Catalina, has a permanent population (it also has significant tourist trade).
Not only would some of the other islands also be good choices for you but, once your character has built a boat, s/he can travel among them. It would be very possible for other humans not to see your character for at least a year, but also possible to be found, depending on your plot requirements.
(By Toddclark, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6045926)
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