I did falconry once and found it impressive that the captive birds had a mean life expectancy of 22 years while the wild ones had just 9. The reason was starvation. You get injured and can't hunt? You starve. You age a bit and aren't quite fast enough to catch mice anymore? You starve.

Civilization's ability to let us specialize, combined with private property, really allows humans to achieve amazing lives compared to the often romanticized other options.