Man Versus Wild Sumatra!

Recently my research assistant and I were out in the field doing some work.  It can get pretty boring out in the middle of nowhere, especially when the day's activities are all done and you're worn out.  So we decided to pass the time watching Man Vs. Wild featuring Bear Grylls, a program that evidently airs on the Discovery Channel in the US.  I'd never seen or heard of the show before, but a friend gave me an episode to watch on my computer.  As it turns out, the episode was filmed at Kerinci Seblat National Park, where I'm currently doing my dissertation fieldwork.  Even more coincidentally, my assistant, who is a real genuine "jungle living dude" (one of the reasons I hired him) was part of the local crew for the show's production team.  He provided a lot of interesting background information about the production team.  He said he was most impressed by the amount of beer Bear Grylls and the production crew drank each evening during filming.  I personally so dug the show that I made some screengrabs so I could relate to you just how awesome Bear Grylls is.

The whole point of the show is so that Bear can show viewers how to survive in really dangerous places.   In this particular episode Bear travels to "one of the most uncharted rainforests in the world".  To give you an idea of the location, I've included the following chart of the aforementioned area.  If you want more charts of the uncharted area, you can visit the mapping office of the national park's headquarters, which has soil charts, vegetation charts, animal density charts, topographic charts, trail charts, DEM charts, rainfall charts, and lots of great satellite imagery as well.

At the beginning of the program Bear drops out of a helicopter in the middle of a barren, desolate swamp.  "If something happens out here", Bear cautions, "no one would hear you scream".  Except, of course, the camera crew.  Bear makes his way through the swamp and into the jungle....his goal is to go east for some reason.  The show features some really nice natural scenery in this "impenetrable rainforest", most of which can be reached by walking a couple of hours from the nearest road and can be accessed via well-marked trails which are used by the residents in this "vast unpopulated wasteland". 

Bear poaching monitor lizard

Bear tells us that "this is one of the places you wouldn't last a day without the right survival skills".  He has to use "every ounce of [his] survival knowledge".  Along the way he imparts nuggets of wisdom like "you need dry wood to make a fire" and "you need to drink water".  He also advises potential maroonees "not to fight the rain".  One of the first problems Bear faces in the wild wilderness of Sumatra is to find food.  Evidently Bear's awesome mental library of all things "survival" doesn't include asking local folks "hey, what sorts of things can I eat here?"  Maybe they were taking a nap.  None of the million or so people that live in and around the park are featured until the end, so we don't really get to see any examples of the way that people have been going into "the jungle" for hundreds and even thousands of years to get food.  Never mind that there are all sorts of fruits, leaves, and roots that you can use.  Bear's got a taste for the monitor lizard liver.  Later in the show, after eating a variety of bugs, Bear shows us how to catch and eat a poisonous mangrove snake.  I'm no expert, but I have done a bit of surviving in my day.  In fact, I "survive" pretty much everyday.  And although I in no way claim to have the kind of natural talent that warrents having a program on the Discovery Channel, one thing I've picked up on that might be useful to Bear is NOT TO MESS WITH HIGHLY VENOMOUS SNAKES.  If you see one, you should stay away from it.

Bear poaching snake

That being said, it is fortunate that Bear found something to eat.  But unfortunately for Bear Grylls, poaching animals in the national park carries a fine of 100 million rupiah (about US$11,000) and a prison sentence of 5 years.  After viewing the show I dashed off an email to a friend at the Forestry Ministry to alert him of the crime.  Eventually the now fugitive Bear finds a river, his ticket out of the dark jungle wasteland!  He explains how it's currently the rainy season (it is in fact raining during much of the filming of the program), and how the river can swiftly rise during the rainy season.  He then proceeds to stay as close to the river as possible, making sure to spend as much time as possible in chokepoints and narrow ravines.  Bear's mastery of the waterways is inspiring; I included the photo below from my favorite scene, where instead of merely walking around a big rock in the middle of the stream, Bear masculinely climbs it so he can hop down, a maneuver that any normal mortal would avoid out of fear of turning an ankle "out in the middle of nowhere".  He even makes a harness out of rattan, a strong and fast-growing jungle vine that has long been used by local folks to make everything ranging from furniture to kitchen implements.

One wonders why, if Bear is trying to make it to higher ground, does he keep going downstream?

Bear stealimg NTFPs

Again, unfortunately for Bear Grylls, stealing non-timber forest products (NTFPs) like rattan also carries a fine of 100 million rupiah and a prison sentence of 5 years.  I sent another email to my friend in the Forestry Ministry with somewhat more urgent language, given that Bear, by this point in the show, had become a serial offender that must be stopped forthwith.  Not long after the rattan poaching incident, the soaking-wet Bear Grylls, fresh out of a raging river, faces the problem of how to procure water.  He searches and searches and finally finds some bamboo, which can sometimes be tapped for water.  Then he identifies an orangutan nest up in a tree, an ideal place to spend the night.  This in itself is a particularly remarkable feat, since the show was filmed about 700 miles away from the closest orangutan habitat.  Later he cuts a bunch of vines and leaves to make a roof for his shelter up in the tree, with each cut representing an additional fine and prison time.  By now Bear is into the Government of Indonesia for about $250,000, but on the bright side he's laying the groundwork for a great new show, "Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival: Indonesian Prison".

Later Bear decides eventually to head east to higher ground, because that represents his best chance to find "civilization".  But on Sumatra the main areas of settlement have historically been on the coast!  Oh No Bear!  After a while Bear finds his way to the hidden Danau Kaca (Glass Lake), which is a pretty cool place that you ought to check out if you ever make it down here to the impenetrable jungle.  He jumps in with all his clothes and gear on, which is another great survival skill!  However, finally Bear reaches the edge of the impenetrable jungle and sees some paddy farmers in a clearing.  Unfortunately for the viewer, none of them are VC. 

On a serious note, though, at no time during the program is Kerinci Seblat National Park mentioned.  And although Bear visits one of the park's best-known and most accessible attractions, no effort to publicize the park and it's mission is made.  This is really unfortunate, because one of the things that the park and the local governments are hoping to develop is the ecotourism potential of the area, and the show could've provided international exposure for the park which would help improve the local economy and theoretical reduce pressures on the park.  Instead Bear unleashes an ecoterroristic crimewave on the rainforest remeniscent of the predations of the Dutch colonial era and the darkest years of former strongman's Suharto's rapacious New Order Regime.  Of course, the whole point of the show is to show people how scary nature is, and how manly it is to conquer the jungle.  It's "man vs. nature", not "man and nature".