These actions are important to you when you are trying to avoid capture. Animal life in the area can also give you clues on how to survive. Animals also require food, water, and shelter. By watching them, you can find sources of water and food. Animals cannot serve as an absolute guide to what you can eat and drink.
Many animals eat plants that are toxic to humans.
Keep in mind that the reaction of animals can reveal your presence to the enemy. If in a friendly area, one way you can gain rapport with the natives is to show interest in their tools and how they get food and water. By studying the people, you learn to respect them, you often make valuable friends, and, most important, you learn how to adapt to their environment and increase your chances of survival. Without training in basic skills for surviving and evading on the battlefield, your chances of living through a combat survival and evasion situation are slight. How you decide to equip yourself before deployment will impact on whether or not you survive.