An acorn cap whistle is one way of improvising to give yourself a very loud way to attract attention to yourself.

If you were lost without a whistle in a survival situation, being able to use this and other mechanisms to attract attention to yourself could mean the difference between life and death!

The hands

Hold your hands so your thumbs are touching. Rotate your hands open slightly like you are making a butterfly shadow puppet.
holding the acorn cap

You want to hold the acorn cap so it is totally sealed all around except for in the “V” shape you made with your thumbs.

The blow

Press your lower lip gently against your thumbs as shown, your upper lip kind of sits on top.

Blow hard. It will probably take a bit to figure it out right but when you get it, it will be loud!

Earlier this year (2015), a woman's body was found in the wilds of Maine, literally feet from where searchers were looking for her (she had wandered off the Appalachian Trail and had gotten lost).

If she had used a whistle, periodically, throughout the first few days of her being lost, she very likely would have been found.

To learn more about whistles and other survival tools that can save your bacon in a crisis, visit Instructables.

Featured Image via Lifehacker