Forage Field Notes
"Chasing and killing an animal or bird for food, sport, or profit basically..."
On the subject of raw meats and caught varmints:
Okay, you just got done bagging that raccoon, landed a fish with one of your traps or head shot a deer. Walking around with a live animal or raw meats in your bag paints a big “I have fresh food!” sign on your back and alerts predators to come for dinner!
Predators in the world survive and exist by having extremely good senses of smell. If you've learned how to prepare the meats, you know it's not a good idea to process them in your camp. Cook or store it quickly otherwise you might find yourself having to fight off a crowd of freeloaders with teeth…
In essence, if you carry live animals or raw meats in your backpack over a period of time there are chances that a group of predator animals or zombies will track you down and attack you.
Learning to make and using various traps is a necessary skill that can carry you all the way through late game stage. As you get more comfortable in the apocalypse, there's always the opportunity to splurge a little bit and try your hand at making Grandma's old roast recipe that you remember so well as a child.
In all seriousness different foods have different bonuses and in some cases buffs. Some traps like bug traps help you to procure baits for other traps. Others are just plain needed to find some of the more elusive critters out in the wild that you almost never see like opossum and skunk. If you've never had braised skunk chunks you don't know what you're missing.
Trap Type | Name | Baits | Catches |
 | Bird Trap | Bird Bait | Crow, Pidgeon, Pheasant, Grouse |
 | Bug Trap | Bug Bait | 
   |
 | Crab/Crayfish Trap | Crab Bait |  |
 | Fish Trap | Fish Bait |     |
 | Small Animal Trap | Varmint Bait |     |
Baits, simply put, attract the critters to the traps you made. Different animals are lured in by different things and you're going to have to experiment or get lucky enough to find a good field magazine or two out there that shows you how to make them. Some baits can be made with multiple ingredients and may, or may not affect success rates.
