Spawning Location
When you first spawn you'll notice some text show up on the right side of the screen. This will contain your general location, so make sure you remember this. Unless you spawn near a landmark, it's the only way you'll have any idea where you spawned.
Map & Compass
There is an in-game map, but it's an item like any other. Until you find one and store it in your inventory it won't be displayed when you press M. However, there is an online version of the map, which also contains the English names of locations. Towns will have a sign containing their name somewhere near their borders, but it will be written in Cyrillic.
There is also an in-game compass, usable with K, but like the map is only usable if you have a compass in your inventory.
The map and the compass are the most important tools at your disposable for figuring out where you are, and what direction you need to walk in order to get where you want to go.
Night time
I haven't tried this method myself, but apparently there is a way to locate the North star at night. If you find yourself wandering around alone at night this should prove useful in helping you get around.
Finding Action
Towns are the best place to find zombies and players. Zombies have a much higher spawn rate in towns (in fact they currently don't spawn in the woods at all, only near buildings). Towns are also a required stop for most players since contain the most loot. Your best bet for finding a town after you spawn is to just follow the coast in either direction. It may take some time, but you'll eventually find a town.
Something else to pay attention to is the in-game chat (by default you talk with "/", and change channels with "."). Watching this is one of the best ways to find out where players and zombies are. Players will often send messages looking for people to meet-up with, or give out warnings if their are a lot of bandits or Zombies in an area.
Best Answer
Where to find animals ?
Animals spawn mostly in fields except for pigs and rabbits who seem to spawn more frequently in forest. Also, chickens spawn in towns. However, it may be easier to find an animal in a field since the open field is more visible than the forest.
Hunting strategies
By following some simple DayZ rules, you'll be able to safely hop from field to field and search for cows, lambs, pigs or sheeps. Once you find one of these, be sure to look around and search for potential threat. Since most animals spawn in open fields, players are the biggest threat and they will be able to spot you easily.
Rabbits move the fatest. Rabbits will be extremly difficult to kill and will yield the lowest amount of meat (Watch this for more info). Other animals are mostly static and will be quite easy to get to.
Choosing a weapon
Choosing a weapon for the kill may seem trivial but it can save your life. Remember that sound in this game is really important. Getting heard from far away can attract unwanted attention and can easily get you killed.
The hatchet would be your weapon of choice. Quiet and powerfull, it will be easy to kill, gut, and leave unheard.
The Crossbow will give you about the same result as the hatchet, but at longer range. It may be useful if a zombie is near.
If you don't have any space left to swap in and out your hachet, using a handgun is really your best choice in this case. Try to get out of the field really fast and do your business far away so you don't get caught by unwanted visitors. Most handgun requires two shost to kill an animal, so you may want to conserve ammo.
A silenced weapon would be a nice choice, but I wouldn't waste any ammo on this if another weapon is available.
Last, any primary gun if nothing else is available.
Gutting and results
To gut an animal you need a Hunting Knife.
Cooking meat
Cooking meat requires wood and a box of matches. To make a fireplace, you must have wood in your main inventory. Then, right click on the box of matches and choose "Create fireplace".
Once this is done, you can light a fire. From there, it's easy to queue actions. So you light the fire, then cook the meat, then put out the fire and then take the cooked meat from the fireplace. The faster the better since you will lower your chance to attract visitors.
Also worth mentioning is that you can use oil barrel in towns (such as Cherno or Elektro) and light them up. This will also give you the option to cook any meat you have on you.