I'm bear grylls.
I've traveled to the ends of the earth
In search of the most extreme challenges
And the most dangerous locations.
In this program, i'll be drawing on the lessons
Of my most demanding experiences
To show you the skills you need
To survive in the world's toughest environments.
I've dropped into every corner of the earth,
Fighting sub-zero wastelands...
Parched deserts, and steaming jungles,
Battling the elements, consuming the unimaginable,
Doing whatever it takes to survive.
You alive?
In this, my ultimate survival guide,
I'm gonna show you how to deal with deadly animals,
Find food, and battle the elements --
Everything you need to stay alive.
Whatever environment i'm confronted with,
From the dry sands of the sahara
To the torturous swamp of indonesia,
The first challenge is always the same --
Find a way in.
Fast-roping like this
Is a technique in the special forces
As a way of getting soldiers down onto the ground
The fast way.
Whether it's fast-roping from a chopper
Or a free fall from 8,000 feet,
It's always a buzz.
And he just made it in, to this riverbed.
Get this stowed and then have a look around.
And this whole place just looks like it's...
Dead and rotten.
And it smells like it, too.
Every environment presents its own specific obstacles
And its own specific set of dangers.
[ grunts ]
One threat you'll have little or no control over
Is the wildlife.
Be on your guard at all times.
Now, those bison are coming straight this way.
Get into cover. Do not want to mess with them.
So, look. A little baby alligator.
Now, look at this guy.
Alligators have the most powerful jaws of any reptile.
If you're attacked, go for its eyes and its snout.
See, that's how they catch their prey.
Whack with his tail, and at the same time, with his head.
Snakes can be found worldwide in all sorts of places.
That can kill you.
And wherever you find snakes, you find danger.
When you're handling a snake,
You've always got to watch what's going on with its head,
Especially when it's poisonous.
Whoa!
Okay.
And pin his head down.
Okay, i've got him.
That's a beautiful snake but pretty poisonous.
If it bites you, it'll inject
This, like, cytotoxic venom straight into you
And, like, numb, paralyze your arm for a few days.
Masters of disguise,
These deadly predators blend into the landscape.
You've got to stay alert.
Okay, come in very gently.
Of the four kinds of snakes in the sahara,
The egyptian cobra is one of the most venomous.
The first thing you've got to do is just keep absolutely still.
[ snake hisses ]
This one's around 4 foot long.
[ snake hisses ]
It can strike up to half his body length in under a second.
There he goes. See that hood coming right out?
And these guys move so fast.
They kill almost 100 people a year in africa, these.
There you go. See him strike that?
Always back off slowly and never corner a cobra,
But give it room to make a getaway.
Come across this in the night, though,
And it could be all over for someone.
The cobra's deadly neurotoxic venom
Attacks the nervous system.
Eventually, the respiratory system shuts down completely.
The basic rule with dangerous animals is, keep your distance.
But in the hunt for food,
You may be forced to come into close contact.
In mexico, swarming bees meant one thing --
Honey.
See, that's what i'm after.
Look, he's on my forehead.
Forehead. Go away. Go away.
To avoid the stings, cover up all exposed flesh --
Hands, face, and forehead.
That one has got me just up here.
Here, can you see? Can you pull it off for me?
And that's what you want to pull out.
You guys see that?
For such a small, little fly thing,
It doesn't half-deliver a punch -- ooh.
Beestings can take a couple of hours to affect you,
But when they do hit, they hit hard.
Met quite a brute of a beesting, this.
It's made all of this part of me swell up.
I feel a bit like the elephant man.
You know, my eye and nose, forehead swelling up.
Allergic reaction to beestings can be fatal.
I'm worried about anaphylactic shock.
The first signs are swelling around the eyes,
Followed by difficulty breathing
And loss of consciousness.
It causes 1,000 deaths a year in the u.S.
Feels like a kind of big price to pay for a bit of honey.
Plants are a vital component to survival.
They provide you with fire, insulation,
Even cordage to make a shelter.
The vegetation could be your savior,
But it could also be your worst enemy.
Oh, this is one tree that --
You don't want to reach for this one.
Look at all those spikes. And this is called a black palm.
I've got another name for it. It's a [bleep] tree.
Watch out for it.
These spikes will slash your hands,
And the water dripping off them
Is a lethal cocktail of bacteria.
Wounds out here turn septic in hours.
Wherever you are in the world,
A little local knowledge can make all the difference
To your chances of surviving.
You're moving through the desert,
And suddenly you come across these sort of bushes.
You might think, "great, food. Looks like manna from heaven."
But you'd be wrong. These are deadly.
And what they're called is calitropis.
You can tell that from these big leaves
And these fruit that look like avocados.
But look, if i break this,
You get this milky sap,
And you do not want to get that on yourself.
Get that in your eye, it will blind you.
Try and eat any of this, you'll probably be sick for days.
As a general rule,
A white, milky sap should be avoided at all costs,
And this euphorbia, mimicking a cactus, is no exception.
This stuff literally has been known to kill people.
One of our crew got a tiny, little bit on his finger,
And a bit later on, he was sweating,
Went to wipe his forehead, got a little bit in his eye,
And, really, almost blinded him.
Survival can be a risky business,
And things don't always go to plan.
Sorry.
The british army has a saying about dealing with problems --
"improvise, adapt, and overcome."
This attitude will carry you
Through the most difficult situations,
And at the heart of it lies resourcefulness.
In dense forests with no waypoints,
It's easy to lose direction.
To see the lay of the land, get up high,
But sometimes that's easier said than done.
I'm gonna see if i can get up -- get up this tree.
I reckon if i can get like most of the way up this,
I should be able to get a nice view out over the forest
And get my bearings.
And to get up to the branches, you got to improvise.
What i've got is my rucksack,
And there's loads of webbings and drawstrings and everything
Hanging off this.
And what i can then do with this...
...Is tie it around my boots in a bowline.
Through the loop,
Around the tree, back down the hole.
That's one.
And then do the same on the other.
The string around my boots gives me extra grip
And acts as a clamp around the trunk.
So i can quite nicely -- look.
[ blowing ]
Now i can see where i've got to go.
Okay, this is about as high as i can get up this tree.
[ breathing heavily ]
You can see i can get a view now out over that valley,
And, really, that's where i should be heading.
On a frozen glacier,
The simple task of walking presents a huge challenge.
Normal footwear is rendered useless.
In boots like this on the ice,
It's like going uphill on an ice rink.
Look. Watch this.
Trying to move across a glacier without crampons
Is pretty impossible.
And that's just trying to move 20 feet.
I'm gonna need another plan
If i'm gonna make any progress across this.
If i get my boots off and these off,
I need to try and get them over the end of this.
And the aim, really,
Is for these socks to give more traction
Than just the rubber sole of these boots.
Okay. Time to give it a try.
And that's great.
It's definitely grippier than just rubber soles.
Sometimes the key skills you learn in one environment
Will help you overcome a problem
In a completely different landscape.
In the badlands of south dakota,
Where the earth literally slips away from under your feet...
Ice-climbing techniques become key.
I can actually use a bit of this dead juniper bush
To make myself a bit of an ice ax.
And that, then...
Is gonna do as an ax.
Put it in and pull on.
I need one more of those,
And that will help me get out of this place.
Actually, this is working quite nicely.
And they might not be the prettiest ice axes in the world,
But at the moment, they're doing their job.
Wherever you find yourself in the world,
Someone will have been there before you.
Definitely an old mine,
And it looks long since abandoned.
The people may be long gone,
But what they leave behind could be your saving grace.
Now, that i can use -- old bit of car tire.
Cut it into strips for cordage.
Can use as spring snares, so i'm gonna take that with me.
Let's see what else we can find here.
Old bit of flip-flop.
Can be useful. Loads of things you can do with that.
Start a fire with it.
If you burn it, there will be black smoke.
Good signal fire.
A bit of float fishing. I'll keep that.
Combine what you find with what you already have.
The most basic components produce amazing results.
A deer antler and the cord from a rucksack
Make a catapult with a range of up to 40 foot.
Bull's-eye.
When time is of the essence, you need to be creative fast.
High in the mountains of siberia,
To escape the cold,
You've got to find a quick way to descend.
In the nighttime here,
The temperature is gonna plummet.
You know, winter in siberia. Minus 40, not uncommon.
And i do not want to be up here.
The fastest way down is by sledge.
Okay, this is how to make a toboggan the bear way.
The tuvan tribe, descendants of genghis khan,
Have carved out a living here for centuries.
To get around, they make sleds
Out of wooden frameworks wrapped with deer fur.
Okay, i've got toboggan finished.
I'm out of here.
Let's go.
It beats walking any day.
It's a risky strategy.
If i come off at speed, i could break a leg.
But i'm going for it,
And at least i'm covering ground superfast.
Whoo!
Every 300 foot you descend,
The temperature rises around one degree.
In the freezing siberian nights,
This could be a lifesaver.
[ breathing heavily ]
That was just a complete whiteout.
It's like zero visibility.
It's like being strapped to a human cannonball.
In my next challenge, the search is on
For a big catch in the swamps of the deep south.
I've faced the earth's most inhospitable landscapes
To show you what it takes to stay alive.
Self-rescue means movement.
And movement expends energy...
Whoo!
Whoo-hoo!
...So food must be high on your priority list...
...However bad it tastes.
[ spits, coughs ]
Prawn.
Bogey, custard.
Rubbery, tinny, super bitter.
Like an explosion of pus in my mouth.
Disgusting. Blegh!
Ugh.
Had some quite bad ones today.
With no weapon, making a kill is hard to achieve.
Check out this little guy.
If you can overcome your prejudices,
Eating bugs and grubs will keep you alive.
But you need to know where to look.
A big, rotting log,
And that, for me, means one thing --
Food.
Bugs and insects feed on rotting wood, but beware.
Dead trees are also home to poisonous snakes and spiders.
Here, come up and look at this in here.
Come on.
Look at that. That's quite a monster.
Larva.
Maybe like a moth larva or something.
And a beetle, as well.
And this is called insect lunch.
Ohh!
Ready for this?
[ grunts ]
Ohh, my goodness.
Pbht!
This one has been living in there
A very, very long time.
I'm not gonna need to eat for a week after this one.
[ exhales deeply ]
Ugh.
Pound for pound, insects like these
Contain more protein than beef or fish.
They're perfect survival food.
Ugh.
This actually ranks as one of the worst things
I have ever, ever eaten.
[ spits ]
Snakes make a much more substantial meal
If you can catch them,
But treat poisonous species with great respect.
Some can strike from over 4 foot.
Use a long stick or a rock and aim for its head.
Even once it's dead, be wary.
The venom can remain active for days.
Even after it's off, look.
You can see the fangs on that
Look like little hypodermics,
But they're still capable of killing you even now.
The safest thing is to bury it.
All meat should be cooked thoroughly to kill bacteria,
But if you've got no way to start a fire,
You'll be forced to eat it raw.
See all of the blood coming out of its jugular there?
And that really, in an emergency survival situation,
Is food and life.
[ speaking native language ]
[ spits ]
And really fresh blood like that
Is so rich in minerals, vitamins, energy,
Everything you need to survive.
And so many nomads and tribes all around the world
Will drink the fresh blood from their animals
As a source of energy and survival food.
When food is in short supply, waste nothing.
You never know when you'll eat again.
Try not to be squeamish here, 'cause ounce for ounce,
Eyeballs would give you more protein than a steak.
And in the battle for survival,
You've got to have a strong stomach.
And there you go. You can see it there.
Looks just like a giant marble.
And i have no idea what this is gonna taste like.
Short answer or long answer?
Short.
Awful!
If you're forced to eat raw meat, be prepared.
It does have its risks.
Guys, we're gonna have to stop here for two seconds.
This diarrhea is not waiting for anyone.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I do feel better, though.
Okay. 30 more feet.
Rivers and oceans are rich hunting grounds.
High in protein, sea urchins can be found worldwide,
But beware.
Many species have venomous spines
Which can inflict great pain.
Look at the size of the spikes on this.
And you want to get all of these barbs off first.
There we go. Okay, look. You can see inside it.
All of the sand and the guts. I don't want that.
But underneath this, see all of these brown bits here?
That's all of its eggs, all of its roe.
And all of these eggs are good to eat.
They say this is the caviar of the sea.
Blegh! Ugh! It's like...
It's like kind of baby poop.
Not caviar.
Without a rod and line, you may be forced to hunt under rocks
For crawfish, crabs, and freshwater snails.
Ow!
Man, there's something --
There's something down here.
But in the murky waters of the louisiana swamps,
It is possible to go fishing
Simply using your fingers as hook and bait.
[ grunting ]
Ow! Aah!
That's --
That's quite a big catfish.
Get him onto the shore.
Look. You hear that?
Oh, he's got my -- try to show you this.
[ catfish snorting ]
He's got my fingers right down his mouth.
What i got to do is hang onto those gills.
Ow!
These spines on the pectoral and dorsal fins
Can cause severe wounds,
And they contain a powerful venom that causes extreme pain.
And these guys just gonna hang on for dear life.
Ow, ow, ow.
He's just shredded my fingers.
That must be 20 pounds of fish.
And, look, all of that is great just to eat raw.
In my next challenge,
I'll take on the raging currents
Of the mighty zambezi river
To show you how to survive the world's wildest water.
In a survival situation, rivers are your lifeline.
They lead to low ground and civilization,
But they can also be deadly.
I've faced some of the world's most treacherous rivers.
The most formidable by far was the zambezi.
With the river at full flood, i was about to drop
Into the thundering water of the victoria falls.
These rapids are killers,
And people die in them every year.
I'm hovering 25 foot above the water.
I'm about to experience the awesome power
Of one of the world's great rivers.
I'm gonna show you how to make it out of this alive.
Here it is!
I'm ducking under the wave as it hits me
So i don't get battered.
This is the toughest water i've ever been in.
Some of the waves could be 10 foot high,
And they're pounding me from every angle.
I feel like i'm being pulled in a dozen directions all at once.
I'm fairy-gliding, which means working my way out diagonally
And not fighting the current.
[ exhales deeply ]
Kind of just don't realize how big those monsters are
Until you're right in them.
Anyway, i'm in one piece, and i'm ashore.
Shallow river water is deceptive
And can lull the inexperienced into a false sense of security.
I want to be in and across this river as quickly as i can.
Man, it's slippy, and these rocks are greasy.
It doesn't look powerful, but there's enough force here
To knock you clean off your feet.
A stick is vital.
Travel with your body sideways to the current.
Oh, man.
Like i said, more powerful than you imagine.
And that's only thigh-deep,
And there was no way i could fight that.
That just took me.
In slow-moving rivers and lakes,
A raft can be the best way to cross.
A little bamboo like this is ideal.
It's much better than when it's living.
It doesn't have all the moisture in it.
In the deep south,
A ruined shack provided all the materials i needed.
And then all i need,
Is one of those big ply sheets on the top,
And that will be enough
To keep me out of the water and float me across.
If you have to cross alligator-infested waters,
Take time to build a raft buoyant enough
To keep you above the surface and out of harm's way.
Let's give it a go.
Right now is business time.
This is working pretty well.
And no alligator is gonna want to take a bite of this.
There's so many nails in it.
Well, it might not be very pretty,
But i made it across without being eaten.
And in my book, that makes it a great raft.
Whew!
With no rope to secure the wood,
Building a raft strong enough to navigate white-water rapids
Is a huge challenge.
In the yukon, a kayak left in a logjam
Seemed to provide the answer.
Almost as if it's buckled in half,
And there's at least one big, gaping hole in it.
Let's try and get it out of the water.
Before setting sail,
The damaged craft needed repairs.
A spruce tree provided support struts
To give the canoe back its rigidity.
And the tree's resin, thickened with ash,
Makes a perfect sealant to plug any holes.
In a canoe like this, you'll need a paddle.
Make a wooden frame and cover it with a dry bag or rucksack.
This and that. Ready to go now.
Keep the canoe straight on to the flow of the river.
Allow it to turn sideways,
And the current will flip you over.
Once in the water,
Stay on your back with your feet pointing downstream
To protect your head from hitting any rocks.
Receive a direct blow at this speed,
And you're gonna be unconscious.
I hung on for as long as i could.
There was no way that canoe was gonna stay upright in that wave.
And that's long gone.
Next, on a hunting experience in namibia,
I find myself trapped in a hole with no way out.
Survival is all about knowledge.
Never be too proud to learn from others.
Do you see their camp around the acacia tree there?
Bonjour. Bonjour.
Ca va? Ca va.
In the parched desert,
The berbers, the ancient nomadic tribe of the sahara,
Showed me the key to their survival
In these inhospitable lands.
Every berber has a mental map of just what's where.
And this is a real skill of these berber families.
This knowledge is just passed down
From generation to generation,
Of knowing where these wells are in the desert,
These underground pockets of water.
And it's that knowledge that really means
These guys are the ultimate sahara desert survivors.
In panama, the embera tribe,
Who have lived and survived in this jungle for centuries,
Take something much stronger than water.
Wow.
It's like a grape cocktail.
Mmm!
I have an embarrassing weakness for piña coladas,
And this is gonna rival the piña coladas.
Mmm!
[ laughter ]
What they didn't tell me
Is that they add the saliva from the village elders
To help it ferment.
I think i need something to clear my head.
Whoo!
In many cultures,
It's polite to accept your hosts' hospitality,
Even when it's a goat's private parts on offer.
He's gonna cut into that, and then he's gonna eat one of them.
And then in honor of his guest,
He wants to give me the other one.
It's traditional for berber men to eat goats' testicles.
They're thought to enhance fertility,
And it's certainly gonna be a test of my manhood.
That hurts just looking at it.
Merci. Merci.
No.
I must say, i've never...
Never eaten raw goat's testicles before.
Merci, mohammed.
Mmm.
No matter what it tastes like, do try not to offend.
[ gags ]
Okay, mohammed. Sorry about that. Let's carry on.
In the frozen heart of siberia,
Where the weather changes in an instant,
The tuvans have learned how to construct a shelter quickly
To protect them from the severest weather conditions.
Well, it's beginning to take shape.
At the moment, though, it looks a bit drafty.
And what they're doing
Is insulating it with all of this brushwood
And then weighting that down with more of the logs.
You've got to cover the floor
To conserve body heat when you lie down.
The tuvans use dry grass as bedding.
And, look, we've built up
Quite a nice mattress of all of this dry grass,
Like a foot thick,
And that will give me really good insulation.
Brilliant. Thanks.
When the sun disappears in siberia,
Make sure you've got your fire lit.
It's gonna get cold.
I am freezing, freezing cold.
And i've just looked at the thermometer on the camera.
And have a look. See what it's reading.
It's saying minus-30 degrees.
And, really, at the moment,
This is just becoming an endurance exercise
To keep moving my toes and my fingers,
Just trying to keep -- keep them moving.
This is not fun. No fun.
Many tribes still rely on hunting to feed their families,
And for them, it really is a matter of life and death.
[ speaking native language ]
Bravo!
No one's more surprised that i hit it than me,
But i know this is supposed to be good to eat.
Poison darts are used worldwide, but beware.
Even the experts can get it wrong.
I see roy has got a bit of the poison from the blow dart
Onto his hand, and look.
You can just see his fingers are beginning to swell up.
And it's so easy to do,
When you're trying to work your way through the jungle,
Just to rub against that very briefly
And get a little bit on your hand.
You can imagine what that, then, would do to a little animal.
Hunters hone their skills over a lifetime.
For the novice, it's a fast learning curve.
What they're doing here
Is just simulating the noise of an agouti...
[ high-pitched squeaking ]
...Just with a leaf between their mouth.
They want me to have a go at making this noise with a leaf,
But i have a dreadful feeling
This is not gonna resemble the sound of agouti,
What comes out of my leaf, but let's give it a go.
[ low-pitched squeaking ]
I'm not sure what animal that was [laughs]
But we'll see what comes charging out of the jungle.
In the dry lands of namibia,
Finding food is a much greater challenge
Even for the legendary hunters, the san bushmen.
But the san know the track and trail
Of every animal that lives here,
And there's one in particular that they're after today.
They've tracked down a huge porcupine,
And they're trying to dig it out from its burrow.
These guys have brought out their heavy machinery
To try and get this porcupine that's somewhere under here.
But they're quite big, these things, you know?
It's taken eight hours to dig this deep --
A huge amount of effort to catch just one meal.
But that's the reality of life as a hunter-gatherer.
Whoa!
[ speaking native language ]
Get him, get him, get him.
Let's have a look.
Okay, let's see if we can see him.
We've yet to see how big he actually is,
But one thing i do know
Is that a cornered animal is dangerous.
[ indistinct shouting ]
We've got some of his spikes, anyway.
But it's time to finish this.
And it's left to me to get this thing
Out of its hole and killed.
[ applause ]
It's brutal, but for the san,
When it comes to survival, there's no room for sentiment.
If they don't kill, they don't eat.
Water, food, and shelter are the key elements of survival,
But self-help means moving, and moving means risk.
If you plan to walk out of a survival situation,
Count on one thing --
Nature will throw everything at you
And block your path at every turn.
To move on, sometimes you'll have to take risks.
The bottom line is, really, i got a bit lucky then.
But you'll need more than a bit of luck.
Do everything you can to improve yours chances
Of finding a way out and back to civilization.
It's so hard to just keep following the trail, yeah?
The world's hottest desert, the sahara.
And it's immense -- nearly the size of the u.S.A.
With no landmarks to guide you, it's easy to lose your way.
But apply a few basic navigation tricks,
And you should stay on course.
One way i can check my direction is just use my knife,
And the sun and then the shadow that it casts.
And if i just stick this into the ground
And put a pebble where the sun casts a shadow --
See that just there?
And if i then leave this 15 minutes or so...
This shadow now has moved around enough
Just to be able to give me two points.
And if i mark that like this,
That's gonna be my east-west line,
Which means north-south is like that,
Which means northwest is like that.
Travel northwest,
And you'll reach the safety of the atlas mountains.
At night, temperatures drop by up to 80 degrees.
The air is crisp and clear,
And in the darkness, the stars will be your salvation.
The best way of navigating at night in the desert
Is just to use the stars.
And in the northern hemisphere,
The most reliable one to use is the north star.
But the way to find the north star
Is to use the big dipper, or the plow.
And what you do, you take the start of it,
Follow the handle 'round, down to the bottom.
And then you take the last two,
And the distance between the last two --
You multiply it four times.
1, 2, 3, and 4.
Points directly at the north star.
Stars move all the time,
So recheck your bearing every 10 minutes.
Constantly look out for signs
That might lead to civilization and ultimately to rescue.
Just look at the devastation these hurricanes cause.
In louisiana,
The trail of debris left by hurricane katrina
Led right out of the swamps to safety.
After katrina, many families were trapped by floodwaters,
And they had to take refuge in the highest place available.
The roof looks good enough.
Let's see if i can find a way up there.
For thousands of katrina victims,
The roof was the only safe place to be,
Away from the floodwaters and the dangerous swamp wildlife
That was often washed up in their homes.
It was also the best place
To get noticed, located, and rescued.
And that's gonna be the same for me.
The helicopter has spotted me.
And then give him the big international distress signal --
A big "y."
It means, "yes, i need help!"
In the harsh conditions of the desert, settlements are scarce.
You could be walking for days before you see signs of life.
Oh, buildings, palm trees, and people.
And that would mean one thing --
You're safe.
Merci.
In most cases, head for the coast.
99% of the world's population live by water.
Follow the shoreline, and you will find people.
What i'm reminded of in this place
Is that nature is essentially neither for us nor against us,
And what determines whether we survive or not
Is our skill, our common sense,
And ultimately...
Our determination to make it home in one piece.
Whoo-hoo! Whoo!