Survivorman's Secrets of Survival s01e04 Episode Script
Food
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Sooner or later, one way or another, while living out a survival ordeal, I'm gonna have to eat.
These are my top-five survival foods, from the delicious to the disgusting.
Hmm.
Tastes like chicken.
ONE MAN ALONE NO FOOD NO T.
V.
CREW Survivorman Secrets of Survival: Food [ grunts .]
I never enjoy it when hunger and desperation leads me to eating things that I would normally be repulsed by.
I wonder if I can find some worms down there.
What's the grossest thing I've ever eaten? Well, that misses the point.
It's not about what tastes good or bad, what's decent or horrible, it's only about calories, energy to get me through another day, food energy that gives me the strength to keep going and survive.
And this show is all about food survival food and the bizarre ways that I've been able to find sustenance in the wild.
These are my top-five favorite foods in a survival ordeal, but first, let's take a look at how to deal with the dilemma that is food.
I can't believe I just did that.
[ Laughs .]
Sometimes the food you might find in a survival situation is more dangerous than starving.
It's one of those cases where something that looks really juicy and worthwhile to eat ends up actually being poisonous.
Right here.
Clintonia borealis.
And you'd think that this little guy would be nice and juicy.
Unh-unh.
Probably give me an upset stomach.
Not worth it.
Dinner.
You do have to be worried about what bugs you eat.
If they're brightly colored -- and this guy's not -- or if they smell [Sniffs.]
really bad -- this guy smells fine -- those are some things to watch out for.
It likely means that they're toxic.
This one, I think, is gonna be just fine.
Another warning sign are the slow-moving and bumbling creatures.
After all, if they're not afraid of getting eaten as they stroll about in the open, they likely have one heck of a defense mechanism in place, and it's usually poison.
Other times, it's just about knowing how to handle things properly.
[ Man speaking native language .]
We're eating puffer fish, which apparently are supposed to be pretty poisonous, but I have no way of asking them how I'm supposed to eat around the poisonous parts.
So I'm just eating.
If there's one thing that I'm against, it's going out and trying edible wild plants when you've only learned them from a book.
The truth is you need to be taught by a teacher, by someone who knows the plant well, who can take you to the plant, show it to you, get you to touch it, smell it, and then maybe taste it.
The reality is in a survival situation, you eat a plant that you're not sure of? Well, one mouthful could kill you.
And the trickiest of all to identify are mushrooms.
I'm actually not all that good with mushrooms and knowing which one is which.
Now, see the thing is -- with mushrooms, if you're wrong, you're dead Because many of them are deadly, deadly poisonous.
The whole secret is being able to recognize what it is you're about to eat.
If you don't know, you shouldn't eat it.
Wild cucumber.
Sweet.
There's a small patch of it here.
Oh, that's the real deal.
Oh, man, is that good! Well, I got a choice now.
One of the toughest psychological aspects to deal with is rationing food.
I now have to decide whether or not I want to eat it all myself or take some back for bob.
Now, of course, I'm gonna take some back for bob.
But that means that for me, there's only half as much as what I actually see here because I've got to share.
And, uh [Clicks tongue.]
It makes you think about things.
Rationing for two survivors seems obvious.
You split things in half.
But what about when you're alone? I'm not completely without resources.
It was a road trip, after all.
Mandarin orange, and this is a bit of deer jerky.
And a jar of peanut butter.
I wish I could say it was full.
I've got about two tablespoons in there only.
Well, still, better than nothing.
It's incredible how quickly even the residue on the inside of a jar becomes coveted as a food source.
And along with small bits of candy bars or fruit, it gets counted out to last for days to come.
The secret is establishing a realistic time frame.
Do you ration for one day, five days, two weeks? First, you have to have an accurate assessment of how long you'll have to survive without getting any other food.
Breakfast.
[ Sighs .]
And that's the last of the mandarin orange.
Add a pet to the equation, and things just get complicated.
I'm gonna do this.
I said I wouldn't do it, but I'm gonna do it.
[ Sighs heavily .]
I'm gonna steal some food from the dogs.
That's my boy.
What the dogs can eat shouldn't hurt me.
Well, truthfully, I never thought I'd see the day I'd be doing this -- stealing food from a dog.
Oh, man.
I was gonna just take a whole rib.
But there's dog poop on the other side.
So I'm not going to touch that other side.
I have no way of knowing how old this food is, how good it is.
It was reserved for the dogs, after all.
[ Chuckles lightly .]
[ Dog growls .]
Hey.
Fortune may have just delivered me a meal.
Luck can even play a role when it comes to eating.
Sometimes you just stumble upon some gold, and in survival, you got to be an opportunist every time.
And I got myself a meal.
Ha! That's amazing.
[ Laughs .]
I'm probably wasting more of this than I should, but I'm being honest here -- I've never done this before, never eaten one of these guys before, so I'm not taking any chances.
I'm cutting off all the little grippers here.
[ Sighs .]
This is gonna be good.
A small but important disadvantage to me here in mexico, I've never caught or eaten squid before.
So in the end, I wasted some of the parts I could have eaten.
Wow.
It's rubbery, but it's delicious.
All of a sudden, I just realized how hungry I am.
I know what I'm doing for the rest of the day -- eating squid.
Sometimes it just made good sense to bring in some of the local survival foods to help me to get through my ordeal.
The secret here was to bring in food that was local to the area.
And in that way, eating it felt completely natural for survival.
SoThe ostrich egg, finally.
Ohh.
Whoa! Doesn't that look like one massive egg? That is so cool.
Sweet potatoes.
A few peanuts.
And this necklace of nuts.
Oh, and last but not least, some jungle bananas.
This time, they said I could actually have some food, which excited me.
What they didn't tell me was that it was gonna be a bag of raw seal meat.
Eating whale blubber from a narwhal.
Going in gift given to me by the inuit hunter that was training me out here.
[ Smacks lips .]
Mmm.
Raw whale blubber and skin.
A warm seal liver.
It's actually fantastic.
This is the eyeball of a seal.
[ Dogs barking .]
It looks pretty disgusting, but these eyeballs are usually saved for the kids as their treat here in the high arctic, and they love it.
[ Barking continues .]
Mmm.
What follows are my top-five survival foods from the least to the best.
And I start first with that food source that causes the greatest repugnance.
If you're hungry, stick around.
Mmm.
This is actually a good place to find grubs and worms and things that you can throw in the stew pot if you want.
The number-five food for survival -- creepy crawlies.
It's the food source no one likes to think about.
It causes the most upturned noses, yet ironically, it remains the easiest to find, catch, and gather, and can be surprisingly nutritious.
Excellent.
Believe it or not, earthworms [Chuckles.]
Have a lot of protein.
The secret is getting past the plate fright.
If you can do that, you can eat just about anything.
[ Crunching .]
Well, that one's a little gritty.
Finally, some meat.
All I need is some garlic butter.
Mmm.
[ Sniffs .]
Meat.
Time for my little grasshopper kabob, mmm.
Wings, legs, and all.
Big old locust.
There we go.
NowHere's the edible part.
Bottoms up, eh? [ Crunching .]
Hmm.
I have to admit it, it often feels like a lot of effort for such a small bite.
But the secret here is that it's not always about the amount.
It's more about just staying busy and feeling like you're at least eating something, no matter how tiny or seemingly pointless.
Trying for fish or big game, even squirrels, is a very difficult process.
Don't expect to be lost for a couple of days and be bringing home some major meat unless you've got some gear with you.
When you have nothing, it's very difficult.
You're left with, well, as I read one time, you're left with the "gots tos.
" There's the "wants tos" and the "gots tos.
" The "wants tos" is the stuff that you want to eat.
And then there's the stuff that you got to eat because you need sustenance.
Six days with hardly any food, and you can't stand up too quick.
You get very light-headed, and I'm all wobbly and dizzy, but in the same token, I've got to go get some food.
I found such little food in africa that I felt I was at the end of my patience for not eating.
Mind you, it's come to this.
I'm now chopping at termite mounds to see if I can steal a little munch.
I can't even find the big, juicy termites.
There we go.
Four at once.
Mmm.
Ooh, and the dirt's a bonus.
Oh, I'm getting stuffed.
I got another scorpion.
Once you deal with the business end of a scorpion, they can taste surprisingly close to shrimp and they're easy to find and catchCarefully.
What you want to do is, hold him down and just cut off the stinger.
Look at him trying to sting that.
There we go.
My scorpion kabob.
Somehow cooking makes everything a little more palatable.
Yeah! Breakfast.
[ Chuckles .]
The secret lies in gathering lots of one species of creepy crawly to make a full meal.
[ Crunching .]
A little gritty.
You have to kind of do this quick and not think about it.
The more you think about it, the more you won't do it.
Too often, tv shows sensationalize how gross something tastes, when in reality, most of these little treats were part of a traditional aboriginal diet and as such are actually quite tasty and not gross at all.
I've always preferred to show how a little bit of food enjoyment can help you survive.
Oh, yeah! Sweet! [ Sniffs .]
Look at that.
Look at the size of that guy.
I'm gonna cook him up for breakfast.
Once again, cooking makes all the difference.
All right.
So, he's just gonna straighten out as he heats up, gets all toasted for me.
Larvae like this are filled with nutritious oils and proteins good for human consumption.
So, ooh, it's actually hot.
So, first thing I want to do is pop the head off.
Same thing at the back end.
I want to pull the bum, 'cause with it comes all the poop and stuff.
Wait for it.
[ Crunching .]
Ohh! This is not the kind of creepy crawly that conjures up plate fright where you got to get it in your mouth and down quick so you can get the nutrients.
This is tasty.
Many miles away from the witchetty grubs of australia, I had the chance to eat another larvae that looked remarkably similar when the mentawai shamans took me out into the jungle in search of food.
Apparently right beside the pick here is sago worms.
Wonderful, juicy, tasty larva.
I can't wait.
Kids love it.
He's like, "all right.
I'm in.
" Ahh! Hey, it's okay.
Okay.
I'll take it.
I can eat it.
I'm not afraid.
Here, give me that.
Give me that sucker.
Do you just eat the whole thing? Boy: You not gonna try? So, this is the sago larvae.
This is a treat for these guys.
The kid at his first because it's a treat.
I just can't eat the head.
Okay.
[ Speaking native language .]
Me and you.
Me and you.
[ Conversing in native language .]
Man: Yeah.
Simananam! Simananam! Simananam! Simananam! Yeah, I'm just saying that.
Oh, that means "delicious.
" Simananam! You know, I've had better.
Simananam! You know how you chew that last piece of gristle, and you can't swallow it, but it's still in your mouth.
And you just keep chewing, and then you're looking around for the bread on the table? This is one of those moments.
[ Inhales deeply .]
[ Exhales deeply .]
[ People speaking in native language .]
Oh! [ Chuckling .]
Oh, man.
Simananam! Simananam! Simananam! Delicious.
That's the sago larvae.
Didn't it look delicious? [ Laughs .]
Ay-ay-ay.
Creepy crawlies, although pretty gross, are the easiest to find.
And where you find them, you find my next choice of survival food.
Shh.
The number-four food for survival? Reptiles.
With reptiles, we start to get a much better payout in calories taken in for survival.
All the meat in there, I got myself a good, full meal.
Big, old turtle -- this is going to fill me up, get some renewed energy, I hope.
Well, here's one turtle leg ready for roasting.
I didn't bother bringing you in on the cleaning part of the turtle.
It's a bit of a messy operation.
You know, I don't recommend doing this for anything other than absolute survival necessity.
Unlike trying to collect a lot of scorpions or grasshoppers, one turtle or one snake can make for an entire substantial survival meal.
Got myself A little lizard to eat tonight.
Mmm.
Reptiles exist in most areas of the planet, making them a good food source for survival.
This little four-striped whiptail will at least give me a little bit of food energy.
The secret is, once again, identification.
The poison dart frogs of costa rica would not make a good food choice.
Oh.
Hmm.
Not bad.
Just I'm not gonna eat the head.
Don't ask me why.
Just don't want to eat the head.
All right, well, this represents my first real meal in a couple of days A big set of frog legs.
And this is the one meat they say really does taste just like chicken.
Oh, man.
It just peels out just like fish meat.
Mmm! Man, that is good.
I've always found snakes to make one of the easiest to catch and tastiest survival meals, but here in peru, catching one without an experienced skill level can get you killed.
If you haven't caught on yet, the secret, again, is identification.
I just caught myself .
a little snake.
Now, one way to do this, works especially well with bigger snakes Look at him all curled up there.
Tying himself up in a knot.
is to actually pull the skin back utilizing the head.
There we go.
So, now just a matter of take the skin and just peel it right off like this.
It's easy enough to clear out the guts.
Just about any snake meat is edible.
The trick is, of course, dealing with the fangs and poison sacs.
Those guys -- if I just slip and that sticks in my finger, I'm on my way to the hospital.
This is just two thirds of it.
There's still another third over there.
So, this I will probably cook fairly slowly, almost like smoking it.
And as you can see, a lot of meat, which is gonna give me some renewed energy.
So, snakes, quite an excellent survival food when necessary.
Though obviously not reptiles, holding down an equal position of availability are the gatherable creatures from the sea, many of which are delicious.
Oh, yeah.
He's in there, all right.
This is a conch shell, and inside is a delectable treat.
There's no way that I can pull him out of there, and the shell is extremely hard.
But it does have just one -- one weak spot.
There we go.
I'm basically gonna cut away everything that isn't white.
This little piece here -- call that strength of the conch.
Here's what I want Fresh white meat from right out of the conch.
There's another food source here.
This guy right here -- called "limpets.
" There we go.
There he is.
This guy is a tasty morsel, and I don't have to bother cooking him either.
Just basically liberate him and eat.
Just gonna scoop along, using this shell, see what I can come up with.
[ Laughing .]
Hey, hey, hey! Look at that.
What did that take? 15 seconds? Clam.
What I like to do is scoop like this and then drag my knuckles in behind.
Sometimes my knuckles actually feel something that the shell didn't hit.
Or when you hit pay dirt.
Look at that.
That's just a few minutes' work, and I've got dinner.
I've actually returned some of the smaller ones back to the estuary.
There's no reason to be greedy here, and it's better for their population to not just go in and just clear them out, so I've kept only the big ones and thrown all the little tiny ones back -- the young ones -- give them a chance to grow.
It's real simple.
All I have to do is put them on the coals.
There we go.
When there's nothing to actually catch, where do you look to find the food that's next on my list? This is not salmon.
It's not even rockfish.
It's kelp.
But it is edible.
The number-three food for survival -- wild edibles.
Strawberry pincushion.
Bull kelp.
Stonecrop.
Yellow wood sorrel.
Shooting star.
Tubers.
Dandelion.
Mountain blueberries.
Thistle.
Cranberries.
Little violets.
Paintbrush.
Goosetongue.
Bladder wrack.
Fiddleheads.
Acacia sap.
Lemongrass.
Tara vine.
Wintergreen.
Goji berries.
I haven't got a clue what this plant is called.
Cattail.
Grows all over the world.
Mmm.
Excellent.
The thing about the cattail -- you can eat a different part of it almost every season of the year.
And the beauty of utilizing cattail as a food source -- you rarely only find one.
In fact, often you can find enough to last you a month.
Berries can be the same, but of course, the not-so-secret reality is that the key to all wild edibles is finding them in season.
And unfortunately many of the berry seasons are short lived.
Oh, yeah -- mountain blueberries.
Huckleberries -- mm -- and lots of them.
There's a rose hip, too.
Oh, there's a couple more.
I didn't even see these.
Look at this.
Rose hips have, pound for pound, more vitamin "c" than oranges, wow.
That's good! Strawberry pincushion.
The most tastiest treat in the desert, I think.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah.
They're like a combination between a strawberry crossed with a kiwi.
Even the desert can offer up a delicious treat.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah.
This is the plant you want to find.
Check this out.
This guy here is some jungle fruit.
It's actually a member of the tomato family.
And it is going to go down so good.
Of all the skills I've taught in the world of survival, it's edible plants that has held my passion and interest for the longest.
A weed, by definition, is simply a growth that you don't want, so by that, even a rose could be considered a weed.
When I see your lawn left uncut, I don't see weeds.
I see a smorgasbord of wildflowers I can eat or use for medicine.
There we go.
This is my favorite part of the coconut -- juicy, tasty, oh, so sweet.
Though never taken advantage of on a commercial level, coconuts, when they lay on the ground and have about an 8-inch stem of new growth contain my favorite survival wild edible.
Mmm! Man! Though once farmed by natives, prickly pear cactus has always seemed like a lot of work for the payoff.
Ow.
Let's cut off the rim here, because I don't need that.
Go around some of the spikes and spines.
See how difficult it is to work with this type of plant.
Well, here, just to show you what I can eat on this thing.
[ Grunts .]
Now, there's still all these little veins, these white veins.
And you don't actually want them either.
There's actually a little line in between the two veins, and that's the edible stuff.
Not only that, but if you've got a bad cut or a burn, you can put it on it, and it's very cooling to the skin and helps to cool any kind of burns or cuts.
Little piece off like that.
You can eat this raw, or you can put it in -- gather it all together and put it in a pot and boil it and boil the slime off.
But, you know, it's not bad -- not bad raw either.
The secret of eating raw is that you usually get the most nutrients that way.
These christmas cholla look like they'd be nice and juicy.
And you'd just pick some off and rub off the fluffy hairs on them and pop them into your mouth, and they'd be good.
Well, in fact, it's true.
They are good to eat.
They were even part of the traditional diet in this area.
What they're covered with are little spines called glochids.
And if you don't get -- if you miss one glochid and leave it on there and pop that in your mouth, you're gonna know about it for days.
It sticks in your tongue, and it just aches.
So you really have to clean them off.
Okay, there, I just spent like maybe 10 minutes, just trying to get all the tiny, tiny, little hairlike glochids off of this christmas cholla.
It's good.
Just a lot of work.
But one thing I know I can do right now is this sort of creeky area's got pond lilies.
And at the base of them is big tubers full of starches and nutrients.
This was the first official "survivorman" episode.
It was in northern ontario, and I wasn't paying attention.
Not paying attention during survival is the best way to put yourself in serious danger.
Sickness out here Kind of feels like a roasted marshmallow.
can be deadly.
[ Sniffs .]
Oh.
Let's hope it tastes like one.
Ugh.
Oh.
God, that's horrible! Oh.
I should have known better.
Extreme bitterness is often and usually a sign that you're putting the wrong thing in your mouth to eat.
It's like a warning sign the plant gives you and lets you know you're making a mistake.
[ Gunshot .]
Moving on to number two on my list, I tackle the food source everyone assumes I should be eating, but it's far from the easiest to catch.
Stroud: It still smells.
So, this is obviously a spot where either a pack of coyotes or a mountain lion has taken and killed a deer.
Might see if there's any brains left in here to eat.
The number-two food for survival -- meat.
The assumption is that going after some kind of big game would be the ticket to finding sustenance in a survival situation.
And I understand that.
But the reality is that without hunting devices such as a rifle, acquiring a large supply of meat is almost impossible, unless of course you find yourself in a spot where hunters have been just before you.
There's some meat and fat up inside the head here.
That's all there is.
The whole liver is here for me to enjoy.
And the heart is here, and then just a whole lot of fat I know it doesn't look all that good, but it looks like a feast right now.
It's not the tenderloin that's the go-to meat in a survival situation.
It's the internal organs.
Oh.
I don't care if you don't like liver or not.
This is delicious.
A young booby -- that's a bird -- that has fallen down out of its nest, and I don't think he can fly.
Now, that is a survival meal and a half.
Whenever you catch a wild bird, the best thing is to pluck the feathers right away.
The body is still warm.
The feathers come off much easier.
All I really want to do is just open this bird up enough to take the insides out so that I can skewer it.
Birds are one of the most unlikely foods to get while surviving.
But when it happens, it's a huge bonus.
But be warned.
You could never count on something as elusive as birds.
The irony being that I'm eating booby breast.
The yabbies of australia offered a surprisingly substantial meal that was even fun to go after.
I think I even see something down there I can eat.
See him down there? A little tiny bit of beef sausage there.
They'll clamp on to the food, and you can literally just pull them right out of the water and they won't let go.
Oh, two of them fighting for it.
Yeah! Got him! That's one.
[ Laughing .]
Yeah! Yeah! Yes! Ha ha! Yes, indeed! Ha ha ha! Look at that.
Isn't that beautiful? Oh! I cannot wait to eat this guy.
Buddy, I'm nicknaming you "dinner.
" Excellent.
This is what I'm about to enjoy.
Hunting is an active endeavor, and if you'll pardon the pun, it eats up calories.
So it should be no surprise that when it comes to catching meat, snaring is my preferred method.
The secret is to set out as many snares as possible and then give it time.
On this "survivorman" in temagami, ontario, I was fortunate to catch a snowshoe hare within only a few hours of setting the snare, a very rare and lucky circumstance, but after five days without food, was a huge boost.
Don't really know what to say.
I, uh You know, I hate to take the life of any animal.
But in a matter of survival, all creatures are fair game.
Rabbit is a good survival food in the fact that they're not hard to catch.
HoweverThere is a thing called rabbit starvation.
See, they're completely lean.
No fat.
And if you eat nothing but rabbit -- so, you catch a couple of dozen and exist over the next month or so eating nothing but rabbits -- you bring yourself into protein poisoning.
You've got to get fat somehow.
But that's because most people don't continue to eat the internal organs and the brain and the eyes and even the bones.
And you can bet I'm gonna finish off every little bit of this rabbit tonight.
[ Gunshot .]
Finally we got some food.
Even with a rifle, what's available in not always large.
It's not much, but that's the advantage of having, you know, ammunition, the fact that you're out hunting.
At least you can very quickly get game that otherwise -- if all you have is snares or just your bare hands and trying to make deadfalls -- is really tough.
Anything we're finished with, we can either keep cooking it up and actually chew on the bones and just get everything out of the bones -- the calcium -- or put the bones in the hot water, make ourselves a little bit of a stew.
Might be surviving -- doesn't mean you can't be enjoying your food.
Hunting and snaring for wild meat can be added to by incorporating some primitive earth skills.
Deadfall traps are tricky to get the hang of, but they're actually something you can learn from a book and do somewhat successfully.
The secret for me is to recognize and use hardwood for the pieces.
The hardest part about traps and deadfalls is the harder it is for them to set up -- the more of a hair trigger they have, the better they are at working.
Ow! Now that I think [Blows.]
I've got it to size, I'm gonna put the bait on it.
Now, there's a trick to putting bait on these things.
Smear the bait on there so it's actually part of the wood, and that way, the squirrel or the mouse has to work hard to get what it thinks is the food and will hopefully dislodge the trigger.
I've got a little bit of the quickly-turning- horribly-hard block of cheese.
There's my bait all squished on there.
[ Inhales deeply .]
Whew! All right.
There we go -- classic paiute deadfall.
All I want that squirrel to do is to come in here, touch on this bait right here.
If he goes for that bait, the whole thing should go down, and I should have myself dinner.
Whoa-ho-ho-ho! Well, what do you know? Mmm.
Ground squirrel.
I'm gonna need to cook this guy really well.
There's my meal.
What I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna save all the bones, and I'm gonna cook them even more.
I'm gonna have them for breakfast.
My number-one food source if you have the right equipment and are in the right place is by far the easiest to obtain.
There will always be an element of luck, and a big part of that luck pertains to food.
Fishermen are no stranger to the concept of luck being with them, especially for survival.
The number-one food for survival, my favorite -- fish.
The ways and methods of catching fish are possibly even more numerous that what exists for hunting.
Spearing, bow and arrows, poisoning, netting, fishing tackle, and even using explosives are all ways to catch the one food source that I personally believe is the easiest to obtain if you concentrate on it.
In alaska, I was even fortunate enough to come upon a fish an eagle had left behind on a rock.
Luck was on my side this day, and as disgusting as this might look, there was a substantial amount of edible meat left on the carcass.
[ Sniffs .]
Well, it smells fishy, but it doesn't smell bad.
Now, this is just to show you that if you had to, you can eat a lot of things raw.
You'd be surprised how many things you can eat raw without getting sick.
Sushi.
Even if the fish is bad, or I'd eat it raw, which I already did, but I'm feeling fine.
But cooking it should kill all the germs.
So, that being the case, I'm gonna have myself a fish dinner.
In the wild, eating raw meat and even rotting meat is not a problem in a survival situation.
But be warned, it's not the same for meat that has seen the inside of trucks and on the grocery store shelves.
The other thing that would be good to do would actually be to boil this fish.
That's the best way I can get all the nutrients out of it.
I just don't have anything to boil in right now, so I'll take it cooked.
Oh, man! Wow! It was an entirely different situation when I stumbled upon fish in the swamps of georgia.
These weren't gonna go past my lips.
There's no way that I want to bother eating these fish 'cause they're rotting, but with this little bit of water here, maybe there's other little puddles like this where there still are minnows swimming around.
Don't want these ones, though.
Ugh.
[ Sighs .]
Well, I spent an hour, at least, down there trying to catch some of those brookies, and I didn't catch a single fish.
[ Sighs .]
I caught two! Ha ha ha! This is about as good as it gets, when it comes to survival.
Yeah! Whoo-hoo-hoo! I can't believe it.
This makes survival a whole other story.
Ooh! Now, this is more like it! Look at that.
Now, there is a survival meal.
I got my dandelions, my yellow and purple violets, and the main course.
All right, so I've also cooked the internal organs -- the liver, the heart, even some of the eggs -- well, all of the eggs that are in these fish.
It's all edible, all good.
Hot food.
When it comes to survival, hot food is just -- it's such a bonus.
Ohh.
That's better than eating it raw.
In the canadian high arctic outside of pond inlet, I was led astray by my guide.
When I'd phoned ahead and asked about surviving there, I was told, and I quote, "you'll be able to walk across the backs of the arctic char to get across the rivers.
" So I went there with high hopes and a set of fishing tackle, assuming my survival was assured.
When I got there, I saw nothing.
So I asked another guide, and his response was, "oh, yeah, but that was last week.
They're gone now until next year.
" Like ripening berries, fish have their cycles, too.
But I couldn't give up.
All I needed was one fish, and my whole survival circumstance would change for the better.
If you want closely at my body language here, you can tell the intense and desperate state I was in while pulling in this fish.
I had so much excitement, I threw out years of fishing experience and opted to drag this beauty up onto the shore as soon as possible.
This was not about the thrill of the catch.
This was about survival, and I was hungry.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah, baby! [ Laughs .]
[ Straining .]
After the first catch, the thrill and elation got even better.
Here we go.
Come on.
Yeah, baby! Oh, yeah.
This will forever remain for me the greatest feeling I've ever felt while attempting survival in a remote area.
[ Laughs .]
I was speechless.
[ Laughing .]
Split the fish like this.
Now I've got to put some slices in the fish so that it can air out.
If I slice in straight, they tend to fall together.
So I've got to slice on an angle so they fall -- all the little sections will fall open and then dry better.
First of all, I've got all these filets here that are cut away that I'm gonna cook up and enjoy.
Got liver, which is my favorite, some fish hearts.
And what's left of the fish there, there's a ton of raw meat on it that I'm gonna pick away and just eat raw now and enjoy.
Eating the fish roe is fantastic.
Caviar, basically.
I'm gonna go get a fire going and continue with my fish feast.
[ Laughs .]
This is killer.
Water, protection from bad weather, signaling rescuers -- these are the vital, urgent, and most important aspects of survival, yet it's food that everyone wants to know about.
After four hours in the city without a snack, people say they're starving.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
They have no idea.
Oh, that's good.
It doesn't take a large meal to turn the tables in a survival ordeal, although that would be nice.
Sometimes the smallest morsel can make you feel like you're doing something proactive, like you're succeeding at something, like you're on the right track to surviving, and that's vital.
Sometimes it's the small advantages that are the secret to survival.
Mmm.
You know, right now, my editor's watching this and thinking, "man, I wish I was there catching them char and eating them, too.
" Oh, that's good.
Right, barry? Oh, that's so good.
Some scenes may contain graphic content, language and nudity which may not be suitable for all audience.
Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
Sooner or later, one way or another, while living out a survival ordeal, I'm gonna have to eat.
These are my top-five survival foods, from the delicious to the disgusting.
Hmm.
Tastes like chicken.
ONE MAN ALONE NO FOOD NO T.
V.
CREW Survivorman Secrets of Survival: Food [ grunts .]
I never enjoy it when hunger and desperation leads me to eating things that I would normally be repulsed by.
I wonder if I can find some worms down there.
What's the grossest thing I've ever eaten? Well, that misses the point.
It's not about what tastes good or bad, what's decent or horrible, it's only about calories, energy to get me through another day, food energy that gives me the strength to keep going and survive.
And this show is all about food survival food and the bizarre ways that I've been able to find sustenance in the wild.
These are my top-five favorite foods in a survival ordeal, but first, let's take a look at how to deal with the dilemma that is food.
I can't believe I just did that.
[ Laughs .]
Sometimes the food you might find in a survival situation is more dangerous than starving.
It's one of those cases where something that looks really juicy and worthwhile to eat ends up actually being poisonous.
Right here.
Clintonia borealis.
And you'd think that this little guy would be nice and juicy.
Unh-unh.
Probably give me an upset stomach.
Not worth it.
Dinner.
You do have to be worried about what bugs you eat.
If they're brightly colored -- and this guy's not -- or if they smell [Sniffs.]
really bad -- this guy smells fine -- those are some things to watch out for.
It likely means that they're toxic.
This one, I think, is gonna be just fine.
Another warning sign are the slow-moving and bumbling creatures.
After all, if they're not afraid of getting eaten as they stroll about in the open, they likely have one heck of a defense mechanism in place, and it's usually poison.
Other times, it's just about knowing how to handle things properly.
[ Man speaking native language .]
We're eating puffer fish, which apparently are supposed to be pretty poisonous, but I have no way of asking them how I'm supposed to eat around the poisonous parts.
So I'm just eating.
If there's one thing that I'm against, it's going out and trying edible wild plants when you've only learned them from a book.
The truth is you need to be taught by a teacher, by someone who knows the plant well, who can take you to the plant, show it to you, get you to touch it, smell it, and then maybe taste it.
The reality is in a survival situation, you eat a plant that you're not sure of? Well, one mouthful could kill you.
And the trickiest of all to identify are mushrooms.
I'm actually not all that good with mushrooms and knowing which one is which.
Now, see the thing is -- with mushrooms, if you're wrong, you're dead Because many of them are deadly, deadly poisonous.
The whole secret is being able to recognize what it is you're about to eat.
If you don't know, you shouldn't eat it.
Wild cucumber.
Sweet.
There's a small patch of it here.
Oh, that's the real deal.
Oh, man, is that good! Well, I got a choice now.
One of the toughest psychological aspects to deal with is rationing food.
I now have to decide whether or not I want to eat it all myself or take some back for bob.
Now, of course, I'm gonna take some back for bob.
But that means that for me, there's only half as much as what I actually see here because I've got to share.
And, uh [Clicks tongue.]
It makes you think about things.
Rationing for two survivors seems obvious.
You split things in half.
But what about when you're alone? I'm not completely without resources.
It was a road trip, after all.
Mandarin orange, and this is a bit of deer jerky.
And a jar of peanut butter.
I wish I could say it was full.
I've got about two tablespoons in there only.
Well, still, better than nothing.
It's incredible how quickly even the residue on the inside of a jar becomes coveted as a food source.
And along with small bits of candy bars or fruit, it gets counted out to last for days to come.
The secret is establishing a realistic time frame.
Do you ration for one day, five days, two weeks? First, you have to have an accurate assessment of how long you'll have to survive without getting any other food.
Breakfast.
[ Sighs .]
And that's the last of the mandarin orange.
Add a pet to the equation, and things just get complicated.
I'm gonna do this.
I said I wouldn't do it, but I'm gonna do it.
[ Sighs heavily .]
I'm gonna steal some food from the dogs.
That's my boy.
What the dogs can eat shouldn't hurt me.
Well, truthfully, I never thought I'd see the day I'd be doing this -- stealing food from a dog.
Oh, man.
I was gonna just take a whole rib.
But there's dog poop on the other side.
So I'm not going to touch that other side.
I have no way of knowing how old this food is, how good it is.
It was reserved for the dogs, after all.
[ Chuckles lightly .]
[ Dog growls .]
Hey.
Fortune may have just delivered me a meal.
Luck can even play a role when it comes to eating.
Sometimes you just stumble upon some gold, and in survival, you got to be an opportunist every time.
And I got myself a meal.
Ha! That's amazing.
[ Laughs .]
I'm probably wasting more of this than I should, but I'm being honest here -- I've never done this before, never eaten one of these guys before, so I'm not taking any chances.
I'm cutting off all the little grippers here.
[ Sighs .]
This is gonna be good.
A small but important disadvantage to me here in mexico, I've never caught or eaten squid before.
So in the end, I wasted some of the parts I could have eaten.
Wow.
It's rubbery, but it's delicious.
All of a sudden, I just realized how hungry I am.
I know what I'm doing for the rest of the day -- eating squid.
Sometimes it just made good sense to bring in some of the local survival foods to help me to get through my ordeal.
The secret here was to bring in food that was local to the area.
And in that way, eating it felt completely natural for survival.
SoThe ostrich egg, finally.
Ohh.
Whoa! Doesn't that look like one massive egg? That is so cool.
Sweet potatoes.
A few peanuts.
And this necklace of nuts.
Oh, and last but not least, some jungle bananas.
This time, they said I could actually have some food, which excited me.
What they didn't tell me was that it was gonna be a bag of raw seal meat.
Eating whale blubber from a narwhal.
Going in gift given to me by the inuit hunter that was training me out here.
[ Smacks lips .]
Mmm.
Raw whale blubber and skin.
A warm seal liver.
It's actually fantastic.
This is the eyeball of a seal.
[ Dogs barking .]
It looks pretty disgusting, but these eyeballs are usually saved for the kids as their treat here in the high arctic, and they love it.
[ Barking continues .]
Mmm.
What follows are my top-five survival foods from the least to the best.
And I start first with that food source that causes the greatest repugnance.
If you're hungry, stick around.
Mmm.
This is actually a good place to find grubs and worms and things that you can throw in the stew pot if you want.
The number-five food for survival -- creepy crawlies.
It's the food source no one likes to think about.
It causes the most upturned noses, yet ironically, it remains the easiest to find, catch, and gather, and can be surprisingly nutritious.
Excellent.
Believe it or not, earthworms [Chuckles.]
Have a lot of protein.
The secret is getting past the plate fright.
If you can do that, you can eat just about anything.
[ Crunching .]
Well, that one's a little gritty.
Finally, some meat.
All I need is some garlic butter.
Mmm.
[ Sniffs .]
Meat.
Time for my little grasshopper kabob, mmm.
Wings, legs, and all.
Big old locust.
There we go.
NowHere's the edible part.
Bottoms up, eh? [ Crunching .]
Hmm.
I have to admit it, it often feels like a lot of effort for such a small bite.
But the secret here is that it's not always about the amount.
It's more about just staying busy and feeling like you're at least eating something, no matter how tiny or seemingly pointless.
Trying for fish or big game, even squirrels, is a very difficult process.
Don't expect to be lost for a couple of days and be bringing home some major meat unless you've got some gear with you.
When you have nothing, it's very difficult.
You're left with, well, as I read one time, you're left with the "gots tos.
" There's the "wants tos" and the "gots tos.
" The "wants tos" is the stuff that you want to eat.
And then there's the stuff that you got to eat because you need sustenance.
Six days with hardly any food, and you can't stand up too quick.
You get very light-headed, and I'm all wobbly and dizzy, but in the same token, I've got to go get some food.
I found such little food in africa that I felt I was at the end of my patience for not eating.
Mind you, it's come to this.
I'm now chopping at termite mounds to see if I can steal a little munch.
I can't even find the big, juicy termites.
There we go.
Four at once.
Mmm.
Ooh, and the dirt's a bonus.
Oh, I'm getting stuffed.
I got another scorpion.
Once you deal with the business end of a scorpion, they can taste surprisingly close to shrimp and they're easy to find and catchCarefully.
What you want to do is, hold him down and just cut off the stinger.
Look at him trying to sting that.
There we go.
My scorpion kabob.
Somehow cooking makes everything a little more palatable.
Yeah! Breakfast.
[ Chuckles .]
The secret lies in gathering lots of one species of creepy crawly to make a full meal.
[ Crunching .]
A little gritty.
You have to kind of do this quick and not think about it.
The more you think about it, the more you won't do it.
Too often, tv shows sensationalize how gross something tastes, when in reality, most of these little treats were part of a traditional aboriginal diet and as such are actually quite tasty and not gross at all.
I've always preferred to show how a little bit of food enjoyment can help you survive.
Oh, yeah! Sweet! [ Sniffs .]
Look at that.
Look at the size of that guy.
I'm gonna cook him up for breakfast.
Once again, cooking makes all the difference.
All right.
So, he's just gonna straighten out as he heats up, gets all toasted for me.
Larvae like this are filled with nutritious oils and proteins good for human consumption.
So, ooh, it's actually hot.
So, first thing I want to do is pop the head off.
Same thing at the back end.
I want to pull the bum, 'cause with it comes all the poop and stuff.
Wait for it.
[ Crunching .]
Ohh! This is not the kind of creepy crawly that conjures up plate fright where you got to get it in your mouth and down quick so you can get the nutrients.
This is tasty.
Many miles away from the witchetty grubs of australia, I had the chance to eat another larvae that looked remarkably similar when the mentawai shamans took me out into the jungle in search of food.
Apparently right beside the pick here is sago worms.
Wonderful, juicy, tasty larva.
I can't wait.
Kids love it.
He's like, "all right.
I'm in.
" Ahh! Hey, it's okay.
Okay.
I'll take it.
I can eat it.
I'm not afraid.
Here, give me that.
Give me that sucker.
Do you just eat the whole thing? Boy: You not gonna try? So, this is the sago larvae.
This is a treat for these guys.
The kid at his first because it's a treat.
I just can't eat the head.
Okay.
[ Speaking native language .]
Me and you.
Me and you.
[ Conversing in native language .]
Man: Yeah.
Simananam! Simananam! Simananam! Simananam! Yeah, I'm just saying that.
Oh, that means "delicious.
" Simananam! You know, I've had better.
Simananam! You know how you chew that last piece of gristle, and you can't swallow it, but it's still in your mouth.
And you just keep chewing, and then you're looking around for the bread on the table? This is one of those moments.
[ Inhales deeply .]
[ Exhales deeply .]
[ People speaking in native language .]
Oh! [ Chuckling .]
Oh, man.
Simananam! Simananam! Simananam! Delicious.
That's the sago larvae.
Didn't it look delicious? [ Laughs .]
Ay-ay-ay.
Creepy crawlies, although pretty gross, are the easiest to find.
And where you find them, you find my next choice of survival food.
Shh.
The number-four food for survival? Reptiles.
With reptiles, we start to get a much better payout in calories taken in for survival.
All the meat in there, I got myself a good, full meal.
Big, old turtle -- this is going to fill me up, get some renewed energy, I hope.
Well, here's one turtle leg ready for roasting.
I didn't bother bringing you in on the cleaning part of the turtle.
It's a bit of a messy operation.
You know, I don't recommend doing this for anything other than absolute survival necessity.
Unlike trying to collect a lot of scorpions or grasshoppers, one turtle or one snake can make for an entire substantial survival meal.
Got myself A little lizard to eat tonight.
Mmm.
Reptiles exist in most areas of the planet, making them a good food source for survival.
This little four-striped whiptail will at least give me a little bit of food energy.
The secret is, once again, identification.
The poison dart frogs of costa rica would not make a good food choice.
Oh.
Hmm.
Not bad.
Just I'm not gonna eat the head.
Don't ask me why.
Just don't want to eat the head.
All right, well, this represents my first real meal in a couple of days A big set of frog legs.
And this is the one meat they say really does taste just like chicken.
Oh, man.
It just peels out just like fish meat.
Mmm! Man, that is good.
I've always found snakes to make one of the easiest to catch and tastiest survival meals, but here in peru, catching one without an experienced skill level can get you killed.
If you haven't caught on yet, the secret, again, is identification.
I just caught myself .
a little snake.
Now, one way to do this, works especially well with bigger snakes Look at him all curled up there.
Tying himself up in a knot.
is to actually pull the skin back utilizing the head.
There we go.
So, now just a matter of take the skin and just peel it right off like this.
It's easy enough to clear out the guts.
Just about any snake meat is edible.
The trick is, of course, dealing with the fangs and poison sacs.
Those guys -- if I just slip and that sticks in my finger, I'm on my way to the hospital.
This is just two thirds of it.
There's still another third over there.
So, this I will probably cook fairly slowly, almost like smoking it.
And as you can see, a lot of meat, which is gonna give me some renewed energy.
So, snakes, quite an excellent survival food when necessary.
Though obviously not reptiles, holding down an equal position of availability are the gatherable creatures from the sea, many of which are delicious.
Oh, yeah.
He's in there, all right.
This is a conch shell, and inside is a delectable treat.
There's no way that I can pull him out of there, and the shell is extremely hard.
But it does have just one -- one weak spot.
There we go.
I'm basically gonna cut away everything that isn't white.
This little piece here -- call that strength of the conch.
Here's what I want Fresh white meat from right out of the conch.
There's another food source here.
This guy right here -- called "limpets.
" There we go.
There he is.
This guy is a tasty morsel, and I don't have to bother cooking him either.
Just basically liberate him and eat.
Just gonna scoop along, using this shell, see what I can come up with.
[ Laughing .]
Hey, hey, hey! Look at that.
What did that take? 15 seconds? Clam.
What I like to do is scoop like this and then drag my knuckles in behind.
Sometimes my knuckles actually feel something that the shell didn't hit.
Or when you hit pay dirt.
Look at that.
That's just a few minutes' work, and I've got dinner.
I've actually returned some of the smaller ones back to the estuary.
There's no reason to be greedy here, and it's better for their population to not just go in and just clear them out, so I've kept only the big ones and thrown all the little tiny ones back -- the young ones -- give them a chance to grow.
It's real simple.
All I have to do is put them on the coals.
There we go.
When there's nothing to actually catch, where do you look to find the food that's next on my list? This is not salmon.
It's not even rockfish.
It's kelp.
But it is edible.
The number-three food for survival -- wild edibles.
Strawberry pincushion.
Bull kelp.
Stonecrop.
Yellow wood sorrel.
Shooting star.
Tubers.
Dandelion.
Mountain blueberries.
Thistle.
Cranberries.
Little violets.
Paintbrush.
Goosetongue.
Bladder wrack.
Fiddleheads.
Acacia sap.
Lemongrass.
Tara vine.
Wintergreen.
Goji berries.
I haven't got a clue what this plant is called.
Cattail.
Grows all over the world.
Mmm.
Excellent.
The thing about the cattail -- you can eat a different part of it almost every season of the year.
And the beauty of utilizing cattail as a food source -- you rarely only find one.
In fact, often you can find enough to last you a month.
Berries can be the same, but of course, the not-so-secret reality is that the key to all wild edibles is finding them in season.
And unfortunately many of the berry seasons are short lived.
Oh, yeah -- mountain blueberries.
Huckleberries -- mm -- and lots of them.
There's a rose hip, too.
Oh, there's a couple more.
I didn't even see these.
Look at this.
Rose hips have, pound for pound, more vitamin "c" than oranges, wow.
That's good! Strawberry pincushion.
The most tastiest treat in the desert, I think.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah.
They're like a combination between a strawberry crossed with a kiwi.
Even the desert can offer up a delicious treat.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah.
This is the plant you want to find.
Check this out.
This guy here is some jungle fruit.
It's actually a member of the tomato family.
And it is going to go down so good.
Of all the skills I've taught in the world of survival, it's edible plants that has held my passion and interest for the longest.
A weed, by definition, is simply a growth that you don't want, so by that, even a rose could be considered a weed.
When I see your lawn left uncut, I don't see weeds.
I see a smorgasbord of wildflowers I can eat or use for medicine.
There we go.
This is my favorite part of the coconut -- juicy, tasty, oh, so sweet.
Though never taken advantage of on a commercial level, coconuts, when they lay on the ground and have about an 8-inch stem of new growth contain my favorite survival wild edible.
Mmm! Man! Though once farmed by natives, prickly pear cactus has always seemed like a lot of work for the payoff.
Ow.
Let's cut off the rim here, because I don't need that.
Go around some of the spikes and spines.
See how difficult it is to work with this type of plant.
Well, here, just to show you what I can eat on this thing.
[ Grunts .]
Now, there's still all these little veins, these white veins.
And you don't actually want them either.
There's actually a little line in between the two veins, and that's the edible stuff.
Not only that, but if you've got a bad cut or a burn, you can put it on it, and it's very cooling to the skin and helps to cool any kind of burns or cuts.
Little piece off like that.
You can eat this raw, or you can put it in -- gather it all together and put it in a pot and boil it and boil the slime off.
But, you know, it's not bad -- not bad raw either.
The secret of eating raw is that you usually get the most nutrients that way.
These christmas cholla look like they'd be nice and juicy.
And you'd just pick some off and rub off the fluffy hairs on them and pop them into your mouth, and they'd be good.
Well, in fact, it's true.
They are good to eat.
They were even part of the traditional diet in this area.
What they're covered with are little spines called glochids.
And if you don't get -- if you miss one glochid and leave it on there and pop that in your mouth, you're gonna know about it for days.
It sticks in your tongue, and it just aches.
So you really have to clean them off.
Okay, there, I just spent like maybe 10 minutes, just trying to get all the tiny, tiny, little hairlike glochids off of this christmas cholla.
It's good.
Just a lot of work.
But one thing I know I can do right now is this sort of creeky area's got pond lilies.
And at the base of them is big tubers full of starches and nutrients.
This was the first official "survivorman" episode.
It was in northern ontario, and I wasn't paying attention.
Not paying attention during survival is the best way to put yourself in serious danger.
Sickness out here Kind of feels like a roasted marshmallow.
can be deadly.
[ Sniffs .]
Oh.
Let's hope it tastes like one.
Ugh.
Oh.
God, that's horrible! Oh.
I should have known better.
Extreme bitterness is often and usually a sign that you're putting the wrong thing in your mouth to eat.
It's like a warning sign the plant gives you and lets you know you're making a mistake.
[ Gunshot .]
Moving on to number two on my list, I tackle the food source everyone assumes I should be eating, but it's far from the easiest to catch.
Stroud: It still smells.
So, this is obviously a spot where either a pack of coyotes or a mountain lion has taken and killed a deer.
Might see if there's any brains left in here to eat.
The number-two food for survival -- meat.
The assumption is that going after some kind of big game would be the ticket to finding sustenance in a survival situation.
And I understand that.
But the reality is that without hunting devices such as a rifle, acquiring a large supply of meat is almost impossible, unless of course you find yourself in a spot where hunters have been just before you.
There's some meat and fat up inside the head here.
That's all there is.
The whole liver is here for me to enjoy.
And the heart is here, and then just a whole lot of fat I know it doesn't look all that good, but it looks like a feast right now.
It's not the tenderloin that's the go-to meat in a survival situation.
It's the internal organs.
Oh.
I don't care if you don't like liver or not.
This is delicious.
A young booby -- that's a bird -- that has fallen down out of its nest, and I don't think he can fly.
Now, that is a survival meal and a half.
Whenever you catch a wild bird, the best thing is to pluck the feathers right away.
The body is still warm.
The feathers come off much easier.
All I really want to do is just open this bird up enough to take the insides out so that I can skewer it.
Birds are one of the most unlikely foods to get while surviving.
But when it happens, it's a huge bonus.
But be warned.
You could never count on something as elusive as birds.
The irony being that I'm eating booby breast.
The yabbies of australia offered a surprisingly substantial meal that was even fun to go after.
I think I even see something down there I can eat.
See him down there? A little tiny bit of beef sausage there.
They'll clamp on to the food, and you can literally just pull them right out of the water and they won't let go.
Oh, two of them fighting for it.
Yeah! Got him! That's one.
[ Laughing .]
Yeah! Yeah! Yes! Ha ha! Yes, indeed! Ha ha ha! Look at that.
Isn't that beautiful? Oh! I cannot wait to eat this guy.
Buddy, I'm nicknaming you "dinner.
" Excellent.
This is what I'm about to enjoy.
Hunting is an active endeavor, and if you'll pardon the pun, it eats up calories.
So it should be no surprise that when it comes to catching meat, snaring is my preferred method.
The secret is to set out as many snares as possible and then give it time.
On this "survivorman" in temagami, ontario, I was fortunate to catch a snowshoe hare within only a few hours of setting the snare, a very rare and lucky circumstance, but after five days without food, was a huge boost.
Don't really know what to say.
I, uh You know, I hate to take the life of any animal.
But in a matter of survival, all creatures are fair game.
Rabbit is a good survival food in the fact that they're not hard to catch.
HoweverThere is a thing called rabbit starvation.
See, they're completely lean.
No fat.
And if you eat nothing but rabbit -- so, you catch a couple of dozen and exist over the next month or so eating nothing but rabbits -- you bring yourself into protein poisoning.
You've got to get fat somehow.
But that's because most people don't continue to eat the internal organs and the brain and the eyes and even the bones.
And you can bet I'm gonna finish off every little bit of this rabbit tonight.
[ Gunshot .]
Finally we got some food.
Even with a rifle, what's available in not always large.
It's not much, but that's the advantage of having, you know, ammunition, the fact that you're out hunting.
At least you can very quickly get game that otherwise -- if all you have is snares or just your bare hands and trying to make deadfalls -- is really tough.
Anything we're finished with, we can either keep cooking it up and actually chew on the bones and just get everything out of the bones -- the calcium -- or put the bones in the hot water, make ourselves a little bit of a stew.
Might be surviving -- doesn't mean you can't be enjoying your food.
Hunting and snaring for wild meat can be added to by incorporating some primitive earth skills.
Deadfall traps are tricky to get the hang of, but they're actually something you can learn from a book and do somewhat successfully.
The secret for me is to recognize and use hardwood for the pieces.
The hardest part about traps and deadfalls is the harder it is for them to set up -- the more of a hair trigger they have, the better they are at working.
Ow! Now that I think [Blows.]
I've got it to size, I'm gonna put the bait on it.
Now, there's a trick to putting bait on these things.
Smear the bait on there so it's actually part of the wood, and that way, the squirrel or the mouse has to work hard to get what it thinks is the food and will hopefully dislodge the trigger.
I've got a little bit of the quickly-turning- horribly-hard block of cheese.
There's my bait all squished on there.
[ Inhales deeply .]
Whew! All right.
There we go -- classic paiute deadfall.
All I want that squirrel to do is to come in here, touch on this bait right here.
If he goes for that bait, the whole thing should go down, and I should have myself dinner.
Whoa-ho-ho-ho! Well, what do you know? Mmm.
Ground squirrel.
I'm gonna need to cook this guy really well.
There's my meal.
What I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna save all the bones, and I'm gonna cook them even more.
I'm gonna have them for breakfast.
My number-one food source if you have the right equipment and are in the right place is by far the easiest to obtain.
There will always be an element of luck, and a big part of that luck pertains to food.
Fishermen are no stranger to the concept of luck being with them, especially for survival.
The number-one food for survival, my favorite -- fish.
The ways and methods of catching fish are possibly even more numerous that what exists for hunting.
Spearing, bow and arrows, poisoning, netting, fishing tackle, and even using explosives are all ways to catch the one food source that I personally believe is the easiest to obtain if you concentrate on it.
In alaska, I was even fortunate enough to come upon a fish an eagle had left behind on a rock.
Luck was on my side this day, and as disgusting as this might look, there was a substantial amount of edible meat left on the carcass.
[ Sniffs .]
Well, it smells fishy, but it doesn't smell bad.
Now, this is just to show you that if you had to, you can eat a lot of things raw.
You'd be surprised how many things you can eat raw without getting sick.
Sushi.
Even if the fish is bad, or I'd eat it raw, which I already did, but I'm feeling fine.
But cooking it should kill all the germs.
So, that being the case, I'm gonna have myself a fish dinner.
In the wild, eating raw meat and even rotting meat is not a problem in a survival situation.
But be warned, it's not the same for meat that has seen the inside of trucks and on the grocery store shelves.
The other thing that would be good to do would actually be to boil this fish.
That's the best way I can get all the nutrients out of it.
I just don't have anything to boil in right now, so I'll take it cooked.
Oh, man! Wow! It was an entirely different situation when I stumbled upon fish in the swamps of georgia.
These weren't gonna go past my lips.
There's no way that I want to bother eating these fish 'cause they're rotting, but with this little bit of water here, maybe there's other little puddles like this where there still are minnows swimming around.
Don't want these ones, though.
Ugh.
[ Sighs .]
Well, I spent an hour, at least, down there trying to catch some of those brookies, and I didn't catch a single fish.
[ Sighs .]
I caught two! Ha ha ha! This is about as good as it gets, when it comes to survival.
Yeah! Whoo-hoo-hoo! I can't believe it.
This makes survival a whole other story.
Ooh! Now, this is more like it! Look at that.
Now, there is a survival meal.
I got my dandelions, my yellow and purple violets, and the main course.
All right, so I've also cooked the internal organs -- the liver, the heart, even some of the eggs -- well, all of the eggs that are in these fish.
It's all edible, all good.
Hot food.
When it comes to survival, hot food is just -- it's such a bonus.
Ohh.
That's better than eating it raw.
In the canadian high arctic outside of pond inlet, I was led astray by my guide.
When I'd phoned ahead and asked about surviving there, I was told, and I quote, "you'll be able to walk across the backs of the arctic char to get across the rivers.
" So I went there with high hopes and a set of fishing tackle, assuming my survival was assured.
When I got there, I saw nothing.
So I asked another guide, and his response was, "oh, yeah, but that was last week.
They're gone now until next year.
" Like ripening berries, fish have their cycles, too.
But I couldn't give up.
All I needed was one fish, and my whole survival circumstance would change for the better.
If you want closely at my body language here, you can tell the intense and desperate state I was in while pulling in this fish.
I had so much excitement, I threw out years of fishing experience and opted to drag this beauty up onto the shore as soon as possible.
This was not about the thrill of the catch.
This was about survival, and I was hungry.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah, baby! [ Laughs .]
[ Straining .]
After the first catch, the thrill and elation got even better.
Here we go.
Come on.
Yeah, baby! Oh, yeah.
This will forever remain for me the greatest feeling I've ever felt while attempting survival in a remote area.
[ Laughs .]
I was speechless.
[ Laughing .]
Split the fish like this.
Now I've got to put some slices in the fish so that it can air out.
If I slice in straight, they tend to fall together.
So I've got to slice on an angle so they fall -- all the little sections will fall open and then dry better.
First of all, I've got all these filets here that are cut away that I'm gonna cook up and enjoy.
Got liver, which is my favorite, some fish hearts.
And what's left of the fish there, there's a ton of raw meat on it that I'm gonna pick away and just eat raw now and enjoy.
Eating the fish roe is fantastic.
Caviar, basically.
I'm gonna go get a fire going and continue with my fish feast.
[ Laughs .]
This is killer.
Water, protection from bad weather, signaling rescuers -- these are the vital, urgent, and most important aspects of survival, yet it's food that everyone wants to know about.
After four hours in the city without a snack, people say they're starving.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
They have no idea.
Oh, that's good.
It doesn't take a large meal to turn the tables in a survival ordeal, although that would be nice.
Sometimes the smallest morsel can make you feel like you're doing something proactive, like you're succeeding at something, like you're on the right track to surviving, and that's vital.
Sometimes it's the small advantages that are the secret to survival.
Mmm.
You know, right now, my editor's watching this and thinking, "man, I wish I was there catching them char and eating them, too.
" Oh, that's good.
Right, barry? Oh, that's so good.