After watching more episodes of both shows, I have to say Bear knows what he is talking about or at least researches very well. Les..eh notsomuch.
Survivorboy did a show in my backyard...the Sonoran Desert. There were so many contradictions, falllacies and downright lies in that episode it had me and my wife howling with laughter and outrage.
From memory here's the highlights;
1. Les stages the show so that it depicts what it is like to get lost on a dirtbike in the desert and have it break down. Plausible..OK. But they show him grinding through the desert...off trail..crashing through bushes and having a grand old time then towards the end of the show talk about how we should all "Take only photographs and leave no trace".
A-Hole!:aargh:
2. They initially depict the episode being the scorching desert where temps climb over 100 degrees F and drop below freezing at night. UMmmm, NO. Temps do not drop below freezing when the daytime temp is over 100 (which only occurs in late spring and summer). In winter it can get into the 30's but then the daytime temp is usually a very mild 75-80 degrees.
The episode was clearly filmed in the winter when daytime temps are nice and mild..even for a pastey Canadian dimwit like Wes.
3. Edible Cacti. Les clearly did some Google-esque research on cacti for his schpeal about which cacti are edible and which are not. But it's also clear he had zero practical/real life knowledge when he attempted to eat a dried out barrel cactus fruit. Yes they're edible, but only when they're fresh and juicy.
He then goes on to make a huge deal about eating Mammalaria cactus fruits which although fresh at the time, represent about 0.05 calories a piece. Wow, real survival skills there Les.
4. On the subject of wasting more calories than you are taking in by pursuing stupid activities...Les goes hunting. For grasshoppers. Yeah, let's expend a good 300 calories chasing grasshoppers around AND then cooking them for their meaty 4 calories of actual worth. Brilliant.
5. Javelinas. In the show, Les claims that he has to be cautious because of all the dangerous wildlife around (a favorite theme of this suburbanite scare-dee-cat). The deadly venomous rattlesnakes (which are estivating in winter), the mountain lions (which virtually never attack a grown man), and worst of all by far..the dangerous and aggressive javelinas (pronounced "have a lines" by dimwit) that "have been known to attack people in numbers".
Guffaw! No they don't Lester. About the only time javelinas have attacked people is when they are cornered..like by a hunter..or if they are being fed by people who then get too close. Even then, it's just a bite or two but Les would have us believe that they will chase you down in packs and eat you like dire wolves on a caveman.
Then there is a scene where Les is hiding up in a tree as a "dangerous" javelina passes underneath. He's clearly scared but he needn't be. I've gotten within inches of dozens of javelinas..since they can't see very well...and all have run off when they detected me. They're mostly shy and skittish but occasionally a boar will stand it's ground before running off.
Les also missed his opportunity to eat well by letting 15-20 pounds of meat walk off because he was afraid or pressing an erroneous point.
Les also had the incredible fortune to just stumble across a creek in the desert...which has about a 1 in 100,000 chance of happening on it's own so it's clear he and his crew made sure he would intersect that creek (looked like either Cienaga Creek or Davidson Canyon to me). That's called staging and it's what everyone is on Bear's ass for right now.
So more and more I see "Survivorman" the more I view it as how to hang out for a week in the woods and not eat anything, be unjustifiably frightened of the wildlife, and blunder about causing ecological damage (he's gotta poop somewhere) while NOT showing people really how to survive in the wilderness.
The End
