The progression from hunter/gatherer, to formal agriculture is a major reason for man’s success,

Hunting, however, is a great start when agriculture fails.

Hunting is a great sport but ultimately trapping and fishing are going to feed a family a lot for longer and with much less effort, as they multiply the effort of a single person and could provide for a surplus of food for trade.

Trapping of birds is the simplest of affairs, and ,while rather cruel,can be done with fish hooks and bait,

or possibly nets, and other falling traps, even mouse traps.

Birds are abundant, at least at first during a crash and are a great source of food, very few are poisonous and trapping them would be very quiet and easy.

One down side to birds is they may carry pests and they don’t provide much meat. but this along with foraged food would provide enough for a small group to survive.

Having recently moved to a country that has great fishing and there are very few area’s that are not in close proximity to the Sea,

I have been investing in Fishing gear and investigating fish trapping for crayfish

Fishing is much like trapping birds underwater ; ) the same rules apply , one thing to note is that while it may be illegal in some areas to trap animals or birds, it is often not illegal to catch fish , which makes it really appealing.

Especially since I now live 300 m from a Bay, where fishing is allowed and I plan on investing in a Canoe and some good fishing gear.

Hunting on the other hand is dangerous( it exposes you to other people), labor intensive, and not very rewarding, game of any real size will get scarce and it must be processed and preserved.

Few groups could eat a whole Deer before it went bad without refrigeration.

Fish in a fish trap don’t need preserving, and game that is caught live can sometimes be domesticated.

The same applies to caged birds.

because the unit size of fish, and birds, rabbits and other other smaller game chickens and small animals, they can be consumed in one sitting and so present less of an issue when it comes to preserving them .