Bear Grylls should be in jail.

[corbanzo]

Just so everyone knows, I love caribou.  I think they are beautiful, I like the way they move, and I love the way they taste.

Then I am in the gym today on the hampster wheel, and what else but the newest man vs. wild comes on.  He is somewhere above the arctic circle, they never said where, but he did say stuff about the local inuit people, so he was in canada. 

Anywho.  He finds a herd of what they call reindeer (aka caribou in normal people speak), and sets a trap.  Makes the herd run, he snares on, gets it to wind itself around a tree and kills it.  So up to now, I don't really have a problem.  He cuts the throat, bleeds it, drinks the blood as he is bleeding out.  Me, I still don't have a problem, it was a fairly quick kill so the animal didn't suffer, drinking the blood was just one of his dumb stunts, why it was necessary??  Who knows.

So he makes a little cart out of sticks to drag the carcass through the snow when he is done dressing it (though they only showed him opening it up and ripping the guts out, so I'm pretty sure he didn't dress it)  The next scene, he is dragging the carcass down a ledge into a creek bottom, with absolutely no purpose to go down there, the carcass and his little stick cart flips, and goes into the water.  He says it's stuck and there is nothing else he can do. 

Part that really really really really really really really pisses me off:  he cuts off one front quarter, and leaves the rest in the water, because he says it's stuck and he can't get to it.

So there you have video evidence of him practicing wanton waste of a big game animal.  On national TV.  So, he should be in jail.  Try and watch it, it
s $^*% up.

[Casull]

Bear is an idiot.  The stuff he does makes no sense, other than to show off his stupidity.  Why else would a man with a perfectly good knife use his teeth to rip the guts out of a trout.  I got sick of Les Stroud talking about "hating to kill a rabbit", but at least he doesn't do the gimmicky stunts that Bear does.

[Skunk]

Just watched it. Was hoping a big ol' Polar Bear would have come along and stolen that front quarter from him.

[Dand]

I agree he's pretty goofy to a total fool. What has bugged me is that in some of his northern survival stuff he never seems to wear a hat, which for most of us is pure foolishness in the winter. Makes me doubt his actual survival skills. Around the Nushagak country, there was an old timer in the 30's to 60's I think known as Hard Workin' Tom - stories are told still about how he NEVER wore an hat it was so unusual.  For me especially and most, no hat in winter is almost suicide.

Now sounds like Pooh Bear made up some excuse to waste meat. He should be nailed for it. Our troopers and the laws out here are pretty hard on any waste.

I'm with you Corb, I love watching caribou, hunting them, eating them and hate to hear of any waste. INCLUDING Point Hope - that's sure a mess. I far prefer hunting them over moose hunting. Toss up on the eating.

One thing about Bear, he must have a stomach tougher than a stray dog for the stuff he swallows down.

[spruce]

I could be wrong (no surprise there!), but episodes like this make me wonder if it's just a way for the producer(s) of the show to convey a subtle anti-hunting message to the audience?

I mean, the shows biggest audience are probably non-hunter types - backpackers, green-types, etc.  I've watched a few shows, but thought they were not realistic and some things were obviously staged.

Now think about all the people watching who've never been out in the woods, let alone have any knowledge or understanding of hunting whatsoever.  The next time anyone mentions hunting to them they're gonna think back on this episode where he basically killed the "defenseless" animal with his bare hands (to them the knife is the same thing), disgustingly drank the blood, wasted most of the meat, and had a pretty cavalier attitude about the whole thing.

What do you think they're opinion would be on someone actually hunting them with a rifle?  I think their vision may be of a psycho-type walking up to one, sticking the gun barrel in it's ear, blowing it away, and then cutting  off a small piece of meat and eating it raw, then walking off with a wild eyed crazed look on his face.
Maybe a little far-fetched, but programs like this do tend to put a negative image of hunting in the minds of uninformed people.

[dukkillr]

I wonder if his producers didn't pull that caribou out or give it to the local inuits... I think he got caught staging some stuff a while back and now he admits in the intro that somethings are staged... This could be one of them...

Also remember that his show is designed to show rescue situations.  In a real situation such as the one he faced the appropriate response may be to take a quarter and get moving.  I'd much rather be given a ticket when I get out than be found dead but dragging a whole caribou behind me.

I've never gotten an anti-hunting vibe from his show but I'm not an expert or regular viewer.  On one show he was rescued by hunters after he found a guy pile and followed them out.  There was nothing negative towards hunting in that episode.

[corbanzo]

Also remember that his show is designed to show rescue situations.  In a real situation such as the one he faced the appropriate response may be to take a quarter and get moving.  I'd much rather be given a ticket when I get out than be found dead but dragging a whole caribou behind me.

Well in this situation he went waist deep in the creek to get the meat off.  So instead of starving to death in two weeks, you freeze to death in four hours....  That is a great way to teach the kids.  Hey, maybe if we can get a bunch of californians to watch the show and try it, it will help the situation....   

[hunt-m-up]

These shows seem directed at people who wouldn't frequent this site much if at all and who think the city park presents some significant outdoor challenges.

[briarpatch]

TV works on one principle. We watch, they show. 

[Dand]

Corbanzo, I like your last comment there.  One other objection I've had to Bear's stuff is advocating walking out- especially in remote Alaska. Unless one really know where they're going and really has the equipment to do it, its often better to find the closest, safe dry spot and stay put. Rescuers are more likely to find you than if you wander off, wear yourself out, get hurt, drown crossing some water, get way far from where rescuers are likely to search, etc.

I was an an S&R once for some teachers that got disoriented and walked out to Aleknagik. We had 5-6 planes in the air for over a day in real bad weather searching hard. We were about ready to let loose some trailing dogs imported from Kodiak when the guys showed up in the village. True we didn't know they had gotten lost for a day or two but they could have made a shelter closer to the cabin where they started and would have been located sooner and maybe without risking 12-18 lives flying, (pilot + 1 or 2 spotters/ plane) and all the other mobilization.  They were lucky. Too many times folks die when they do this.

In Alaska, saving energy, staying warm & dry, staying in the area you are expected to be in are keys to survival.

[mirage1988]

Corbanzo,
I saw that episode too, he said he had permission from the "saami people." The saami (also known as lapps or laplanders) are nomadic reindeer herders in northern europe (finland, sweden, and norway), so he was a long way from alaska. Those were tame reindeer that he was so skillfully hunting! He is an absolute moron in my book.

I'm not sure if reindeer are considered game animals in sweden (where he was) since they are domesticated, so I don't know if wanton waste would be a violation. I'm sure he just paid the herders a few grand for a photo op.

[corbanzo]

Really?  Then I guess he needs to get his facts straight, because I distincly remember him saying the local inuit people.  Either way he's full of it.

[Casull]

Really?  Then I guess he needs to get his facts straight, because I distincly remember him saying the local inuit people.  Either way he's full of it.

He probably just forgot where the chopper flew after leaving the Hilton that morning (and before returning that evening).

[corbanzo]

Maybe he got drunk in the hotel the night before, ate some bad caviar, and had dreams of inuits, who knows?

And a tsimtian elder told him the creek needed the caribou to grow strong....

[bigbore442001]

I watched that show and was sickened by his foolishness and waste of a gift. How many people have starved as we speak for the lack of such meat? He filmed his stupidity in northern Finland and was a guest of the Saami people. Since they are herdsmen he most likely paid for the animal and did what he saw fit.

His antics will get people killed in plain language. It may make copy but he did many foolish things. He acts like a clown and takes unnecessary risks which will lead people to do the same. I wished I could have kicked him in the dupa when he lost 3/4 of that animal. What a fool and idiot.

[ShadowMover]

I think it was Grylls, but there was a show featuring one of these guys losing his dogsled and team. The dogs ran off hauling the sled behind. He actually let them go by pretending to fall off, so he could do his survival thing.  A short time later a helicopter shows up with the news the winds have changed and the ice sheet they are on is being pushed out to sea. Everybody must evacuate immediately. No mention of the fate of the dogs.  Anybody else remember that one? What a poser he is.

[Foxxtrot]

He stages his entire show...he is an actor who knows a few things about survival. Yet what he portrays on television will likely get regular folks killed if they were to use his footage as an educational tool. He is bad for hunters, fishermen, and outdoors men in general. If you want to watch great survival skills.

Watch Ray Mears on VEOH.com

http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/ray+mears

Best damn survivalist television personality out there. No BS and sometimes has a nice story around the episode.