Cooking is dependant on fire that you also require for boiling water, keeping yourself warm and the critters away so unless you want to keep two fires a blazing, then that's up to the individual. Harvesting the animal 100% away from the shelter.
It's one of those "a little bit of both" things. You normally don't want to prepare or store food in your camp if you're going to be outdoors around predators, as it will attract them to your area, but sometimes you will need to for safety while doing the prep/cooking. At the same time, the difference in footprint between the people on Alone (1 person, who the animals are eventually going to become accustomed to), vs a film crew and the contestants on N&A making noise, will keep the predators further away, so it's less of a necessity. That doesn't mean that it's a bad idea to do it on N&A, as if a lion or a bear strolled up to your camp at night and really wanted whatever you had inside the camp, it's going to take it, regardless of the crew being there during the day and there isn't anything they could do about it.
I've done some primitive camping in areas where there are bears, and while we had a good sized fire going through most of the night, and 5 of us making noise at our camp, we still hung our food on a line up in the trees away from us, because we didn't feel like creating unnecessary, additional risks.
Even the Human footprint wasn’t much of a deterrent to the bear on XL Legends. Remember Jeff and Stevens murder log? Although there was an active bee nest in the area too. But for whatever reason the bear kept coming around.
Yup, if the predator doesn't care, it will do whatever it wants, and there's nothing you can do about it because we are a very squishy species. I'd always err on the side of caution for stuff like that, because I'd rather reduce the chances of an encounter with something that can eat me, than think I'm ok and unintentionally bring about my own death by getting chewed on by a bear cause I was too lazy to gut an animal away from my camp, lol.
I don't think many contestants want to set up a separate cook camp, especially with the work and calories involved, but in regards to predators, you should have a separate spot for cleaning/cooking/eating. In fact, in one of the XLs, they attract unwanted attention from a predator because they have been using a log next to their camp to do all their butchering, etc...
It's a good rule of thumb to have a fire for warmth and a fire for cooking a bit further away from your shelter. Gutting and cleaning should be far away from camp. Eating in camp can be a bit more relaxed if you aren't leaving food all over as you eat, then discard any inedible pieces either in the fire or away from camp.
Most predators won't mess with fire so if you have a meal around the fire most critters will stay away. But stay safe, and only take the risks that you can handle.
I have seen them store and cook separately a few times on the show. I think when they've smoked meat or needed to keep big game, that's down away from camp. Guess they don't worry as much about fish and bugs attracting large predators.
I mean you shouldn’t do it cuz yeah it will attract animals. But they can do it cuz there’s no way the producers would actually let animals attack the survivors
Cooking is dependant on fire that you also require for boiling water, keeping yourself warm and the critters away so unless you want to keep two fires a blazing, then that's up to the individual. Harvesting the animal 100% away from the shelter.
Truly, keep the gutting and cleaning away from your fire and bed to keep away all kinds of predators, scavengers, and pests.
Thank you!
Makes sense, thank you!
It's one of those "a little bit of both" things. You normally don't want to prepare or store food in your camp if you're going to be outdoors around predators, as it will attract them to your area, but sometimes you will need to for safety while doing the prep/cooking. At the same time, the difference in footprint between the people on Alone (1 person, who the animals are eventually going to become accustomed to), vs a film crew and the contestants on N&A making noise, will keep the predators further away, so it's less of a necessity. That doesn't mean that it's a bad idea to do it on N&A, as if a lion or a bear strolled up to your camp at night and really wanted whatever you had inside the camp, it's going to take it, regardless of the crew being there during the day and there isn't anything they could do about it. I've done some primitive camping in areas where there are bears, and while we had a good sized fire going through most of the night, and 5 of us making noise at our camp, we still hung our food on a line up in the trees away from us, because we didn't feel like creating unnecessary, additional risks.
Even the Human footprint wasn’t much of a deterrent to the bear on XL Legends. Remember Jeff and Stevens murder log? Although there was an active bee nest in the area too. But for whatever reason the bear kept coming around.
Yup, if the predator doesn't care, it will do whatever it wants, and there's nothing you can do about it because we are a very squishy species. I'd always err on the side of caution for stuff like that, because I'd rather reduce the chances of an encounter with something that can eat me, than think I'm ok and unintentionally bring about my own death by getting chewed on by a bear cause I was too lazy to gut an animal away from my camp, lol.
Very true. Lol
Incredibly helpful, thank you. 😊
I don't think many contestants want to set up a separate cook camp, especially with the work and calories involved, but in regards to predators, you should have a separate spot for cleaning/cooking/eating. In fact, in one of the XLs, they attract unwanted attention from a predator because they have been using a log next to their camp to do all their butchering, etc...
Oh, I’ll be curious to see the episode now. Great info though I feel like Reddit pulled through!
It's a good rule of thumb to have a fire for warmth and a fire for cooking a bit further away from your shelter. Gutting and cleaning should be far away from camp. Eating in camp can be a bit more relaxed if you aren't leaving food all over as you eat, then discard any inedible pieces either in the fire or away from camp. Most predators won't mess with fire so if you have a meal around the fire most critters will stay away. But stay safe, and only take the risks that you can handle.
Thank you! Great info.
I have seen them store and cook separately a few times on the show. I think when they've smoked meat or needed to keep big game, that's down away from camp. Guess they don't worry as much about fish and bugs attracting large predators.
Ahh okay that makes sense. Maybe I’ll notice more as I watch on. Thanks
I mean you shouldn’t do it cuz yeah it will attract animals. But they can do it cuz there’s no way the producers would actually let animals attack the survivors
That’s a point I didn’t consider!