The biologist Joe Vogel deals with the current season 7 vs. Wild and the mistakes of the candidates on YouTube. In his opinion, there is a lack of basic knowledge in many situations: for example, to what extent the body can tolerate salty water or how to check whether an algae is poisonous. Simply starving for two weeks is not survival, explains Vogel. Especially if you live in the “land of milk and honey”.
These are the questions that dominate 7 vs. Wild: There were a few situations in the current season 3 that raised questions:
One of the participants in season 3 is the Twitch streamer Jens “Knossi” Knossalla. You can see more about him in our video:
From the witness stand with Barbara Salesch to the king of Twitch – Knossi’s career and life
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Meinecke admits there are gaps in knowledge regarding salinized water
That was Fritz Meinecke’s perspective: The founder of 7 vs. Wild answered questions from fans after the elimination. He admitted: He had a gap in his knowledge and didn’t know to what extent salted water was drinkable. He knows that you can’t drink pure sea water, but then it stops.
When looking 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 said several times “it was all too high for him.”
“Knossi and Sascha Huber are actually out”
That’s what Vogel says now. The studied biologist and journalist goes into a video from December 29th. harshly against the participants of 7 vs. Wild and the show. Vogel explains that the team of Knossi and Sascha Huber should actually have already been eliminated. In general, Vogel has no understanding of gaps in knowledge and repeatedly shows books that he has written on survival topics and recommends them to the viewer.
He doesn’t accept any gaps in knowledge about whether something is edible or not:
These are things you just have to learn. If you can’t do that, you’re there and you make a mistake and then you’re afraid that you’re going to die and then you ask: “Can I eat this?” And then you get the information: “No, you can’t eat.”
If he doesn’t have the information, then he eats it, he might poison himself if he doesn’t do it right. And this additional information gathering – that is what survival is all about.
According to Vogel, it is the duty of every participant to obtain all the necessary information independently: that is the real survival. He gives instructions on how to test whether food is poisonous by sticking it to your lip for a while and waiting to see whether your lip stings or goes numb.
Vogel is just as ungracious with Survival Mattin and Fritz Meinecke: There is no need to know to what extent salted water is still drinkable. But if you don’t know, it will lead to you being eliminated from such a self-experiment:
“You don’t have to understand osmolarity. You don’t need to know how much salt there should be in barely drinkable water. However, this can then lead to you having to abandon a survival attempt because you are unable to answer these questions. That’s what happened to Fritz and Mattin. There were simply gaps.”
Starving for two weeks is not survival
That is his thesis: Vogel says the tools and resources you can take into the wild are limited. But the knowledge in the head is unlimited. This knowledge needs to be accumulated and maintained.
The show “7 vs. Wild” and survival influencers put too much focus on the material people take with them. Things like crafting or building a shelter (makeshift accommodation) are not the essence of survival:
“Build the camp a little bit in a secluded, elevated place, collect water and that’s it. You’ve covered the basics. Most of all is information.”
Knowing what you can eat and what you can drink is much more important. Knowledge about what kind of animals are available locally 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 place with Litoral, which are these rocks that go into the water. They are bursting with food. And once you’ve dealt with Red Tide a little bit, it’s a land of milk and honey.”
Does he also like 7 vs. Wild? Vogel actually praises the organization of season 3, which is much better than before. However, with 14 participants you cannot plan everything in advance.
The participants would also do a lot less stupid things.
He is probably referring primarily to the women’s team, who have previously studied Canada’s wilderness in more detail and, for example, ate snails or made good use of the local fauna. But the women’s team also made an unusual find:
Surprising find in 7 vs. Wild Season 3 surpasses anything we’ve seen so far