History Channel Series Alone Premier

[W.Lynn]

Kinda cool AA, you referenced a children's book that also influenced me.

Another one to put into the hands of young people is "Incident at Hawk's Hill" - but the child in the story is younger, and the reading level nearly the same.

[Sacajawea]

Yeah, I think my money's on our friendly Angery American. The poor guy who didn't move his camp after seeing all the bear sign... well, discretion is probably the better part of valor in his case. I notice AA went immediately to collecting wood before messing with starting a fire. That seems like a wise move to me. Organize camp, first thing, is usually my modus operandi. But we didn't see that much about AA's first night. At least he wasn't babbling; he made SENSE.

[W.Lynn]

Dang, I'll have to watch the full episode later, I keep hanging at about 3 minutes (often less) with everyone using the connection right now.

[roach2654]

My Side Of The Mountain was my favorite book when I was a kid! My brother and I even had a Red Tailed Hawk !

[Cdog911]

That was a good start to the show. Really illustrated the value of being mentally prepared for the survival situation. Of the guys shown, I especially liked your first appearance, AA. Crawling out of the bedroll, business as usual. LOL Meanwhile, Joshua was in a fetal position somewhere nearby trying not to suffer a total meltdown. Not trying to be a knowitall here, because I have never been on Vancouver Island, nor have I ever been in a real survival situation, but this is a few observations from me. Because I have a lifetime of hunting experience, most of which is with predators - to the extent that I've attained a certain amount of education and celebrity for my experience - I feel that a better understanding of predator behavior would have benefited some folks, especially Joshua with the bears, and ultimately, Sam with the wolves. For example, most predators are opportunistic as far as their hunting, prey selection, and travel habits. I would selectively avoid making camp anywhere near a game trail as these are areas where prey and predator alike will be found routinely as well as away from water (for the same reason). An article I did several years ago on calling Alaskan brown bears encouraged the readers to make their setups (stands) with their backs to a high ridge or cliff to eliminate having a bear make its approach from your six o'clock. The same philosophy would appear to apply in where to set up camp, with the best choice being to pitch your tarp or tent with the cliff or embankment downwind of you so that a bear passing downwind of your position by chance would not happen into your scent plume. This is as simple as knowing the prevailing wind direction for Vancouver Island. Secondly, Sam howling at the wolves. There is no single word to describe how bad an idea that was. Wolves and coyotes share certain characteristics, and communicating with howls is one such commonality between the two cousins. Howls are used to convey information both within a pack between members as well as to neighboring packs. The long, drawn out howl you heard last night is a way for pack members to keep track of one anothers' locations as they move about hunting. At the same time, as a means of maintaining spatial distribution amongst all the wolves in a given area, it is an announcement to neighboring packs that the area from which the howls are coming is being actively defended. With coyotes, we use this knowledge to our benefit,... quite effectively. In fact, with coyotes, the only individuals that vocalize are those that are part of a family group/ pack (roughly 65% of all individuals) while the remainder (~35%) are essentially non-vocal. They reason they don't howl isn't because they cannot. Rather, it's because doing so is interpreted by territorial coyotes nearby as an interloper calling to question the ability of the resident pack to defend their home. Doing so would be asking to get your ass kicked. I'm not really reaching too far to consider that wolves are any different in saying that when Sam howled last night, and those distant wolves answered him back, a number of different things were set in motion, none of which were good for him.

First, those wolves that answered back, as cool as that was, were no immediate threat to him. They were simply replying to the announcement that he was there to defend his home (that was what he essentially said) and they simply replied by saying that they were at home and just as ready as well. Very common response in wild canids. More disconcerting for Sam, and second, the wolves in whose territory he was standing when he howled very likely began immediately moving to his downwind side and gathering to make a show of force to defend the sovereignty of their territory from what they interpreted as an interloper. With coyotes, they do this silently - no howls, no vocalizations. They will come together from miles away as they circle downwind as much as a mile downwind of the sound's source and gather together before locating the scent of the intruder, moving up the scent cone until the threat has been located, then circle it before approaching to make contact. Again, this is coyotes. Wolves would very likely do the same thing or something similar. When done right while hunting, howling coyotes is actually more effective than using prey distress sounds, especially at those times of year when social bonds within a family group are strongest. In wolves, there is no specific period when bonds are weakened, as with coyotes, so the foolishness of howling at wolves when you have no way to defend yourself or escape remains the same year-round.

Like I said, I'm not a survival expert, but I am very well-versed in wild canine communication and ecology as this is my wheelhouse and what Sam did was insane. Gonna be interesting to see how that panned out for him.

[unseenone]

Wow, probably one of the best posts on this board to date. What occurred to me during this ridiculous display was who else did he put in jeopardy. besides himself.

[DarthMuerte]

I have a couple of questions. Why did no one choose a gun? What are the rules on hunting? Can you take a bear or other large animal or is that verbotten?

[unseenone]

There was a basic list of stuff they could pick from, guns were not allowed. I suspect in retrospect this was not particularly wise from a safety perspective. I think in an emergency they would send a local in to bag up what's left of you and kill the predator if it still feeding on you. Remember, it was Canada, and they have a serious gun rules up there, and probably didn't want a bunch of Americans running around with guns, besides where would the sport be in that. lol

As far as hunting, local hunting and game departments were involved and it was done on Native Lands so they are allowed to hunt. I don't recall what the limitations were, but there were some.

For example you could bring a fire steel, and a knife, but the knife couldn't have a fire steel, regardless if you picked the fire steel already or not.

Another example might be, choosing a food item, and having less tools, like knives, axes, saws, etc. So if you wanted a saw, knife, and axe, and want a food item, you might have to pick which of the three you won't have because you can't have all four.

Each individual item could be picked but had to be approved, with the exception of some stuff, which was supplied. The idea being, that they had a choice of items to bring, but more or less evenly matched, and made or broken based on those choices from the pool of items. Maybe History will elaborate on that a bit later, but which items out of the pool I believe are listed on the bios for each guy.

I'll see if we can get a better explanation added to the history page. Here's AA's items;

Here are the ten items Chris selected to bring on his survival journey to Vancouver Island:
1. Saw
2. Axe
3. Sleeping bag
4. Ferro rod
5. Large 2 quart pot
6. Water bottle canteen
7. 300 yards of single filament fishing line with 25 assorted hooks
8. Bow and 6 arrows
9. Knife
10. Sharpening stone


I hope this helps.

From the history page: http://www.history.com/shows/alone/a...to-be-on-alone

Do you think you have what it takes to survive for up to a year by yourself in the wild? If so, “Alone” is searching for outdoorsmen to attempt this bold adventure.
To learn more, please email casting@leftfieldpictures.com with your name, age, contact information, location, and a brief description about your survival expertise!
You will be emailing Leftfield Entertainment, the producer of Alone. Leftfield Entertainment may use your information to contact you about the show or other opportunities that it believes may interest you.

I took the personality quiz http://www.history.com/shows/alone/p...rsonality-quiz

It said you are Wayne, Eager to show the world what you’ve got, you’re willing to make great sacrifices to succeed.

I wonder what the result would be to be AA.. I'll take it again and use the answer I think he would give.. and see what the result is.

[Sacajawea]

I turned out to be Dustin.

[W.Lynn]

Finally got to see 7.5 minutes.

[Betty Buckshot]

You are Dustin.
Mental toughness is your calling card, and you rely on your wits—not modern technology—to get by.
- See more at: http://quizus.stg.movinginteractive.....Zo7yLP1F.dpuf

[kickstand]

I'm Alan...I can deal with that.

Easily adaptable to any situation, you’re just as skilled in the combative arts as you are in traditional medicine - See more at: http://quizus.stg.movinginteractive.....IaeiUXH6.dpuf

[jag06]

Loved the first episode. Not so sure about the guy calling out to the wolves, think he might get himself or other si to trouble with that. Looking forward to next weeks though I am watching on a delay as I am working at my scout camp.

[Gwynmael]

YOU ARE BRANT.
Your technical skills complement your love of the outdoors, leaving you uniquely qualified for success.
- See more at: http://quizus.stg.movinginteractive.....yz6XZVaO.dpuf

[Gwynmael]

I'm worried Sam put Chris in jeopardy with the wolves. That's pretty much where they left us at the end of the episode.