The show alone is a survivalist show where contestants are dropped off in the wilderness and they have to survive. The last one to quit is the winner and wins a cash prize. It show cases real survival situations and you can see quickly who’s prepared, and who isn’t. If you’ve been interested in the show, or just want to improve your own survival skills, here are some of the simple skills you should learn before you’re in that situation.
Chop sticks
A lot of the people on the show, at least initially, are trying to cook their food with sticks. Eventually they often get around to making a spoon, but chopsticks are a great cooking tool, and a simple utensil for eating with. If you know how to use them before hand, you can pick up two sticks and be in business. It’s a lot easier than trying to carve a fork. Jose in season 2 uses chopsticks to eat food.
Fire Bow
In season one of alone, one of the guys loses his ferro rod, and that’s the final straw that breaks him. In season 2, Randy drops his ferro rod in the fire, but he makes a fire bow and is still able to boil water and cook food. If you don’t know what a fire bow is, think of how people claim they can rub two sticks together to make fire. Then make that process more efficient and reliable. That’s what a fire bow does, and all you need is a stick and a string.
Plants
Knowing how to identify edible plants will add nutrients to your survival diet. Lichens, mushrooms, seaweeds, berries, roots, barks, leaves, there are so many options. You can get all your vitamins and minerals pretty easily if you know what to look for in the Bush, desert, or Wilderness.
Animal Temperaments and Patterns
In season one, many contestants were terrified of black bears. Black bears generally avoid people. Grizzly bears and brown bears are the scary bears. Most who had run ins with bears either let fear cloud their judgement, or they didn’t know this fact to begin with. Learning to know what’s in front of you is vital.
Perhaps there was some rule against killing the bears, but nobody even thought of it. With all the close encounters, you stick an arrow in one and you’ve got a warm pelt, and a lot of red meat. Bears also have a lot of fat, which is what the people on the show desperately needed. I probably wouldn’t have been trying to kill a bear on day one, but it would have been on my mind from day one.
Know where fish hang out
Different fish hang out in different areas. Fish need food, oxygen, and cover to hide from predators. How fish get these vary by species, but there are some commonalities. Fish like deep holes, shade, and overhangs. They like to hang out in the deep areas below cliffs. They like the deeper channels in the open water. They like calm water right below more rough water because there’s more oxygen in that water, but they still don’t have to work as hard as they would in the rapids. These are just basics.
These aren’t hard or fast rules though. Kokanee salmon for instance are open water feeders, and eat zooplankton. You won’t catch a kokanee the same way you would a catfish. Most of the survivalists on the show have little actual fishing experience, which I found surprising, as fish is one of the most popular proteins all around the world.
Food Preservation
Knowing how to dry and smoke meat, fish, or any other food is critical. And very few people build up food stores. It drove me crazy watching it, especially the seasons when they’re next to the ocean and could have made salt without much difficulty. They could have salted and smoked fish, or other game they hunted. Several of the contestants got to the point where they did, on occasion, have extra food. That should have been preserved.
Shelter Building
Everyone built a shelter, and almost everyone knew what they were doing when they built their shelter. They understood the basics. Most people got their shelter built and moved on though. If you’re in a long term survival situation, especially somewhere that gets cold, I’d be grabbing an extra branch every time I’m headed back to my shelter to add to the walls, roof, or to my bed. It takes little to no extra thought, but you’d be always improving insulation, cooking, and security always. Add a wood shed. Add a fence. Add a smoke house. Start to add mud or dirt to the outside of your shelter. A little bit every day adds up.
Staying Busy
If all you’re doing is staying in your tent in a storm, just staring at the satellite phone to get out of there, you will lose motivation and call home. I kept thinking the whole time they were just sitting around in their shelters, you could be making a basket, or a spoon, or a trap. There are so many things you could do to keep you motivated and to keep your mind and hands busy. Plus, at the end of the day once you’ve successfully made that thing, you also have a sense of accomplishment, which is crucial when you’re in the mental endurance game as much as the physical one.
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