The biologist Joe Vogel deals with the current season 7 vs. Wild on YouTube and the mistakes of the contestants. In his opinion, there is a fundamental lack of knowledge in many situations: For example, to what extent the body can tolerate salty water or how to check if an algae is toxic. Just starving for 2 weeks is not survival, Vogel explains. Especially if you live in the “land of milk and honey”.
These are the questions that dominate 7 vs. Wild: There were some situations in the current season 3 that raise knowledge questions:
- The experienced survival influencers Survival Mattin and Fritz Meinecke were eliminated because their drinking water source was contaminated with salt due to a spring flood, and they did not want to drink from the river. Survival Mattin said: Saltwater destroys the kidneys. Was the water from the river really undrinkable?
- The two Twitch streamers Sascha Huber and Knossi are facing criticism, because they asked rangers whether mussels were life-threatening due to the Red Tide. Were the mussels really deadly?
- Also, the question repeatedly arose about what was actually edible and what was not. Participant Renzmann, for example, only ate a few salal berries during the 2 weeks and otherwise starved: He lost almost 17 kilos. Could the participants have eaten something?
One of the participants of season 3 is Twitch streamer Jens “Knossi” Knossalla. You can see more about him in our video:
Meinecke admits knowledge gaps in the area of salty water
This was Fritz Meinecke’s perspective: The founder of 7 vs. Wild faced questions from fans after his elimination. He admitted: He has a knowledge gap, does not know to what extent salty water is drinkable. He knows that pure seawater cannot be drunk, but that’s where it ends.
While searching for answers, fans pointed him to a YouTube video by Joe Vogel, but Meinecke couldn’t follow the biologist’s explanations, didn’t know the technical terms, and repeatedly said, “It’s all too much for me.”
“Knossi and Sascha Huber are actually out”
This is what Vogel says now. The educated biologist and journalist criticizes the participants of 7 vs. Wild and the show harshly in a video from 29.12. Vogel explains that the team of Knossi and Sascha Huber must have actually already been eliminated. In general, Vogel has no understanding of knowledge gaps and repeatedly shows books he has written on survival topics and recommends them to viewers.
Knowledge gaps regarding what is edible or not are not accepted:
These are things that you just have to learn. If you can’t do that, you are on-site and make a mistake and then are afraid of dying, and then you ask: “Can I eat this?” And then you get the information: “No, you can’t eat that.”
If he doesn’t have the information, he eats it, potentially poisons himself if he doesn’t do it right. And this additional information acquisition – that’s what makes survival.
According to Vogel, it is the duty of every participant to independently gather all necessary information: That is real survival. He gives instructions on how to find out if food is toxic by sticking it to the lip for a while and waiting to see if “the lip tingles” or becomes numb.
Vogel is equally unforgiving towards Survival Mattin and Fritz Meinecke: One does not need to know to what extent salty water is still drinkable. But if one does not know it, it leads to having to withdraw from such a self-experiment:
“You don’t need to understand osmolarity. You don’t need to know how much salt must be present for water to still be drinkable. However, that can lead to having to abandon a survival attempt because you are not able to answer these questions. That happened to Fritz and Mattin. There were simply gaps.”
Two weeks of hunger is not survival
This is his thesis: Vogel says the tools and resources that one can take into the wilderness are limited. But the knowledge in one’s head is unlimited. This knowledge must be accumulated and maintained.
The show “7 vs. Wild” and also survival influencers placed too strong a focus on the materials that people bring. Things like crafting or building a shelter (a temporary accommodation) are not the essence of survival:
“Just build a camp at a reclusive, elevated spot, collect water, and that’s it. You have covered the basics. The vast majority is information.”
Much more important is the knowledge of what you can eat and what you can drink. Knowledge about what animals are present on site and how to prepare them correctly.
It is not survival to simply starve for 2 weeks:
“Feed the frogs. There are snakes on the island. There are crabs, there are fish, there are snails. All participants have a spot with littoral, which are those rocks that go into the water. They are bursting with food. And if you have also dealt a bit with red tide, it’s a land of milk and honey.”
Does he also find something good about 7 vs. Wild? Vogel actually praises the organization of season 3, it was much better than before. However, with 14 participants, you cannot plan everything in advance.
The participants also do much fewer stupid things.
He probably refers here primarily to the women’s team, who researched the wilderness of Canada in more detail beforehand and for example ate snails or made good use of the local fauna. But the women’s team also made an unusual discovery:
Surprising find at 7 vs. Wild season 3 surpasses everything we have seen so far
