Director Found Starving In Wilderness

By PopEater Staff Posted Aug 26th 2009 12:05PM

Documentary filmmaker Ed Wardle has been airlifted from the wilderness after suffering from starvation, UK's Daily Mail reports. Wardle was due to spend three months in the Yukon armed with just a camera, rifle and fishing rod for his National Geographic survival program 'Alone In The Wild,' living off berries and any animals he could catch. But Wardle wound up sending out a distress call five weeks before he was due to finish filming.

During his adventure, Wardle sent out a daily Twitter message to confirm he was still alive. He tracked his progress through the 500,000 square mile wilderness using a GPS satellite tracking device and avoided all human contact. He would leave video tapes at drop-off points to be picked up by collection teams in a helicopter.

But as the weeks passed, family and friends grew worried about Wardle's progress as he began hallucinating and talking to insects as starvation set in. His videos also showed his weight rapidly decreasing over the fifty days.

Prior to setting off, Wardle said, "I imagine I have a long future of fish-eating in front of me. It's going to be trout and grayling for 12 weeks. But meat's a relatively easy thing to get your hands on too. There are hares, squirrels and gophers. They're good to eat because they're fatty. The porcupines are easy to catch because they don't move very fast. As long as you're careful with the spines, they're a good source of food. You hit it with a big stick, roll it over, slice it open and peel the skin back, the same as you would any mammal."

John Beyer, Director of Media Watch said "'This is a pretty foolish enterprise. If Channel 4 are going to send people on this kind of expedition, they really must make sure they are up to it and have the skills necessary to survive. If they first of all did not check that Ed Wardle was competent, then that is the height of irresponsibility on the part of Channel 4, to do that merely to provide entertainment for us all back home to watch this man steadily deteriorate."

Wardle arrived back in London on Monday and is now being treated at home.

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Tags: alone in the wild, AloneInTheWild, ed wardle, EdWardle

Comments

(64)

Wednesday 26 August

By rdh

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

There are a lot of animals in a HUGE area of the Yukon. There are very few animals per square mile as the cold for 3/4 of the year will not support mammals for much of that time. The media depiction is that there is stuff running all over the place and it's hard not to bump into it. The reality is that it is very difficult to find, much less shoot/fish. If you don't know (ahead of time) where specifically to find the animals that you are looking for, then it is likely that you will die.

Thursday 27 August

By ElyShirley

Vote down Vote up Report this

Your so right rdh. Many people do not understand how vast and unpopulated (both human and animal) that the Western United States is. Alaska is even more so than the rest.

By lbkinglet

So true. I used to live in Alaska and at those latitudes the number of animals per acre is far less than people realize. This guy may well have had the necessary skills to live off the land for the amount of time he intended, but not that far north. You just don't find enough to hunt. And three weeks per year of blueberries and high-bush cranberries just won't get you to the finish line. Good thing he pulled the plug when he did, 'cause it wasn't going to get better later.

By denverdoc

Well said. Good common sense. Watch the PBS special Alone in the Wilderness. Proeneke - a guy from Iowa years ago (40 or more)did the same thing in Alaska on Super 8 video film. He built a cabin, and self substaining life. Absolutely phenomenal. That was the real deal.

By Kev

I would like to take you out into the ocala national forestm with just a pocket knife, for three months. There ids plenty of food there, but I would bet, you would lose weight, and/or starve. I on the otherhand, would most likely gain weight.

By Frankie

I've seen this show. You watch a human slowly starving, freezing, eating disgusting insects and mucking about in the forest, moaning and carrying on about how horrible it all is. So where's the entertainment in that? I guess a cave man would find it rather interesting, as his life was similar.

By Kelly

I highly doubt however, Frankie, that the caveman would be complaining.

By kelley

"Director Found..."??? If I spot a dollar bill on the ground while out walking, I would say I found it. If the dollar bill had been tweeting me every day, was being tracked by a GPS satellite, and then called me to come get it, I doubt "found" is the word I would choose. How about a more accurate heading, like "Moron, Desperate For Attention, Saved From Own Bad Judgement"

By Michelle

Absolutely brilliant! Pretty succinct comment. Love the simple logic. need we say more....

By Chris

VERY good point!

By jgoetz9174

The guy from National Geographic went to Alaska specifically to kill animals. Isn't Nat. Geo. all about saving animals? Just proves they'll do anythng for money...I think someone should call PETA and the SPCA.

By bjtitsengolfjr

Why would you call the SPCA. The Virginia leader of the SPCA just killed her dog by leaving it locked in her car for four hours. Her husband took the blame for it and the DA is giving them a pass. The SPCA would be on the phone to the DA in a heartbeat if I were to leave my dog to cook in a car. They would call me guilty before I was even arrested let alone given my day in court.

By Mike O

We kill animals everyday Its how we live!!

By rashasbetter

Hahahaha, PETA. PETA kills off more animals than they even try to help. They spend so much time and money on getting celebrities that they don't actually care about animals. www.petakillsanimals.com. You're better off supporting REAL animal groups. Not just the crappy radical ones.

By jaydol

I feel bad for the animals who's lives had to be sacrificed just so this idiot could play cave man in the wild. Porcupines are such docile creatures,
it's a shame he had to kill one just to entertain viewers back home. People have this preconceived notion that they somehow shoot their quills, In reality they only work as a passive shield against animals lunging in to bite it. If you are careful you can actually pick them up and pet them, just go with the natural flow of their fur and quills. They make the funniest little noises when you pick them up and they love fruit, especially rotting windfall apples and pears.

By denise

It amazes me what passes for entetaiment these days.

By rann948

Why blame National Geographic? I don't remember hearing that this fool was dragged into the wilderness against his will. They provided him with the means to get out, what more can you ask?

By JEAN

I HAVE VIEWED THIS PROGRAM, AS WELL AS VISITING THE GREAT STATE OF ALASKA. I CAN UNDERSTAND THE PANIC, DEPRESSION, AND FEAR HERE, BUT CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME UNDERSTAND WHY HE AGREED TO DO SUCH A TRICK IN THE BEGINNING. ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT THE WILD, WOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO TACKLE SUCH AS THIS. THANK GOODNESS HE WAS RESCUED, WOULD LOVE TO VIEW OR READ OF THIS EPISODE. JUST GLAD HE WAS FINALLY RESCUED FROM THE WILDERNESS AND HIMSELF AND HIS BAD JUDGEMENT.
RETURN TO WELLNESS SOON.

By Dan Miller

Stop posting ads in the comments, you are annoying everybody with these ads and ruin all the comments people put here. Those ads have nothing to what they are saying. Owners of this web page delete these ads people been putting in the comment section please.

By Mark

AOL! YO! Listening? Got to get rid of these ads. NO OTHER comment sections I visit have this problem. Maybe moronic commentors, but at least not the ads. How about if a post gets hit with 10 reports, it is shut down automatically? Might lead to some censoring, but the reviewer (if there is one) could then permanently reactivate the comment.

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