Survival

Ever watch any of the "survivor" shows on TV? There are several to pick from. The most popular by far is Survivor with the same old challenges and the predictable narrative in every single episode. "Come on in guys". "Wanna know what you're playing for?" and my particular favorite, "Immunity idol, back up for grabs."



Then there's Man vs. Wild where this goofy guy with the English accent that overacts and pretends that he's facing death around every corner.



A relatively new one has man vs. woman where each gender shows off their perspective skills in coping without an ipod or a GPS. Neither succeed.



Survivorman is okay, sort of. At least he doesn't have a film crew following him around and sets up his own camera shots. Gotta admire his stamina if nothing else.



My recent favorite is Dual Survivor. One of the participants is labeled a "minimalist" and doesn't wear shoes, no matter if he's dealing with the frozen tundra, piranhas, snakes, thorns, sharp rocks, or cactus. The other guy is a military dude trained in dealing with jungles and swamps. He's usually the hunter and trapper of the two.



As a wildlife enthusiast and photographer, I have one major problem will all of these shows. While it's a given that surviving in a hostile environment requires food wherever you can find it but why is it necessary to kill the wildlife to make a stupid TV show? And they all do it.

Don't forget, all of them with the exception of Survivorman, have a film crew and means of emergency evacuation or medical help if needed. Go ahead, trap the critter, explain how to cook him up if you want, but don't kill the damn thing to improve your ratings. Do we really need to know how to skin an iguana while lost in Belize? To me, that sucks. Animals of the wild have a tough enough time surviving on their own ( a true survival story) without the egotist TV stars knocking them in the head and severing their spinal cords to demonstrate how to live off the land while surrounded by half a dozen people with satellite telephones.



Go ahead, show us how to make fire with sticks, built a shelter out of palm leaves, boil water in a plastic bottle if you want to, but leave the animals out of it. I think we could figure how to skin one and hold it over a fire if our life depended on it, without your dramatics.