By Michael, on March 8th, 2014 
Guest Post, Lee Flynn
When you are wanting to learn how to survive in the wild, there are some television shows that can help to teach you various survival techniques. By watching these types of shows you can gain a general understanding of what it could take mentally and physically should you find yourself in a survival-type situation. They teach you all sorts of skills, from fire-building to which is best to use, 9mm ammo or buck shot. Additionally, the shows provide information about food survival skills and food storage. The television shows feature rugged hosts including Bear Grylls, Cody Lundin, and Joseph Teti. The skills you learn are basic skills for surviving and different scenarios are played out for you to observe throughout the shows.
On a few of these shows there are disclaimers informing the viewers of the fact that some situations are set up by the producers to the hosts to further inform the viewer of a handy survival tactic. This list contains some of the better and more informative of the survival shows.
Survivorman
The creators of the hit show called Survivorman describe the show saying, “no food, no shelter, no fresh water, no tools… no camera crew. One man — alone in the wilderness for seven days.” This show is unlike all the others because it puts a fully-clothed man in a situation where he is completely alone, left with only a camera and his thoughts. He has a satellite phone in case he is in dire need of help.
The host, Les Stroud, uses any supplies he has found in his pockets or on his person. He shows the viewer how to make a shelter, when to make it raised or on the ground, how to build a fire, hot to find fresh water, and minor hunting and fishing methods. He does this all with materials found in his surroundings. Survivorman Les Stroud also shows a side of humans in the wild that most shows cannot. Since Les is completely alone in the wilderness, he deals with everything alone with a silent camera as his only conversation partner. Seclusion like that paired with hunger, thirst, and dehydration result in sometimes unstable mentalities. This show airs on the Discovery channel.
Naked And Afraid
This survival show uses the same concept as Survivorman, except there is no host because it is two strangers, a man and a woman. They have a camera crew during the day but are alone with one another during the night. There is no prize at the end of the 21 days they survive in the wilderness. They each get to bring one personal tool to help them with survival. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that the two strangers are completely naked? This show is a very compelling watch with the added strange sexuality factor. Watch Naked and Afraid also on the Discovery channel and see if they “have what it takes to survive… naked and afraid.”
Doomsday Preppers
National Geographic has a television show called Doomsday Preppers that goes inside the preparation and fine-tuning of survival skills that some people feel necessary depending on various disasters. Some of the people featured in the somewhat odd television show fear events such as the fall of technology, huge natural disasters, and the collapse of civilization as we know it. The people on this show demonstrate survival tactics like building high-tech structures, how to store food and supplies, and self-defense tools and weaponry.
These are plenty of other shows about survival. On YouTube there are channels that can teach you more in-depth ways to hone your survival skills, from very basic and general to advanced and expert levels.
These survival shows listed here are both very informative and wondrously intriguing. Watching the people use their survival skills and techniques definitely differs from actually using the skills yourself in a real-life situation, so it is recommended that you are at least slightly prepared for a situation in which you may need these skills. Don’t take any chances. Be prepared.
Picture Credit- Pixabay
