Episode four of the ninth season of The History Channel Only catches up to five of the remaining nine survivors: Igor, Benji, Teimojin, Tom, and Terry. It also includes the second outing of the season, as Igor’s health and lack of nutrition caused him to give up 20 days later. He was unable to finish his log cabin due to his lack of strength combined with back pain and heart problems that kept him going. him to work quickly.
A variety of survival tidbits spread throughout “The Beaver” episode airing June 16, 2022 include that beavers can weigh up to 60 pounds and provide 960 calories per pound. Bears can smell the guts of animals 20 miles away, and leaving the skin on a carcass is a natural form of insulation against contamination. And the Whiskey Jacks are birds nicknamed “camp robbers” because they like to steal supplies.
We also learned that survivors are provided with a toothbrush but not toothpaste.
Eight contestants remain at the end of episode four.
Benji, age 46, Bellevue, ID
Day 17: Benji gets up early to locate the beaver he shot the night before. Fortunately, he finds the corpse of the poor creature, so he did not die in vain. He carries the lumbering animal back to an area not too close to camp, knowing the scent might attract bears.
Benji worries that the meat will spoil if the temperature doesn’t drop any lower. He is busy preparing the beaver for cooking and has decided to install a steamer. Benji is going to leave the skin to protect the meat.
Benji builds an awesome smoker and prepares different parts of the beaver for cooking. He hangs the meat on his smoking rack; the meat smells good to the extent that it is still relatively fresh. Beaver fat feels great on his hands and works as a natural moisturizer.
Later that night, he roasts the leftover meat and declares that it tastes like roast beef. She thanks the earth for this amazing food.
Benji truly believes that he is capable of going past 100 days and winning.
Day 18: Benji sets up a game cam next to the beaver gut pile about a half mile from his camp. He hopes the images will reveal a bear in the area. Benji is really interested in shooting a bear, sure that would give him enough meat to take him much farther down the road on this adventure.
Benji is proud of how he is doing so far. The only thing that would be better than a beaver is bagging a bear.
Day 19: A bear visits the gut pile and is captured on in-game camera!
Teimojin, 31 years old, Montreal, Canada
Day 17: Teimojin continues to work on his shelter and finishes his bed which is about a foot off the ground. He hasn’t had any protein in two weeks and has lost 23 pounds. He is going to get busy setting traps and looking for more food.
His camp is in an area with lots of squirrels (he calls Labrador a “squirrel palace”) and he has found green balsam fir cones that look like they have been chewed up by small animals. Teimojin determined that his best option is to make snap traps which should work well for catching squirrels.
If you can get your hands on some meat, it will go a long way towards confirming that you can survive a good length of time in this desert.
Day 18: Their berry meal isn’t very satisfying, so luckily the squirrels have become more active. He collects firewood hoping to find a squirrel and admits that it feels like he’s hitting a wall. Everything requires a little more energy than normal and he knows that he may be removed for medical reasons.
He pauses in his meeting when he hears a grouse fluttering in the trees. His first shot is a kill, but the bird gets caught in a tree as it dies. He is able to take him down and celebrates his first kill.
Teimojin prepares the bird for cooking and grills the meat. A short time later he has his first protein meal. He has renewed hope now that he knows what a grouse sounds like.
He spent time in East Africa with different indigenous communities and found them to be incredibly happy and resilient, despite living in harsh climates. They taught him important life lessons, including being resilient in the face of hardship.
Terry, 31, Homer, Alaska
Day 18: Terry has a confession to make: he hasn’t pooped in 12 days. He believes that his body has been burning everything he ingests and that there is no waste to get rid of. Terry’s worried constipation may end up wearing him out. He needs to find a big game or he won’t last.
It’s still dark when he sneaks down to the river to look for a beaver. He sees one, but decides not to shoot because he can’t be sure it’s an instant lethal shot. Terry doesn’t want the beaver to end up somewhere he can’t get to; he is concerned about being respectful of the beaver and not killing it without being able to retrieve it.
Terry says that the mark of a true hunter is moderation. “You just have to do things the right way. If he doesn’t feel good, he’s not,” says Terry.
Day 19: 13 days and Terry still has problems. He uses sap resin to help with his fire and knows that if he gets a beaver, he could be there for a long time. Not being able to poop is taking its toll on his body and he gets dizzy.
Hours later you are experiencing muscle spasms and leg cramps. Also, she has a stomach ache.
We heard him moan but luckily we don’t have the actual proof that he was finally able to poop. He feels refreshed and his body feels surprisingly good again.
Day 21: Terry wakes up before dawn to try to get a beaver. He is patient and watches one for a while before deciding it is worth a try. His first arrow is all it takes to kill the beaver and then it’s just a matter of waiting to see where the beaver’s body approaches the shore.
Unfortunately, the beaver doesn’t come any closer and Terry is forced to undress and lift the body out of the water, even though it is freezing. He realizes that there is a risk of hypothermia, but he has no other choice.
It’s 100 degrees when Terry comes out of the water with the beaver. He is a huge animal and worth plunging into icy water. It took him eight days to go down to the river in the early morning hours and today his patience finally paid off.
Terry believes that beaver weighs about 30 pounds and is one of his favorite bushmeats.
Igor, 39, Bountiful, UT
Day 18: Igor’s back is sore and his energy level is low. His log cabin is a lot harder than he expected, especially since he’s not consuming a lot of calories. He has lost 25 pounds in these 18 days.
Igor heads to the river to try his hand at fly fishing. He is not good at it and acknowledges that it is a deficit in his skill set. He sees seals in the river and that means there are fish. They also mean that Igor has competition for food. (Regulations prohibit anyone from hunting a harbor seal.)
Igor returns to camp with a single small mussel. Even though he is small, he is excited to be able to cook something. He boils it with seaweed as he reveals that he believes the representation of diversity in the survival environment is important. His first experience of seeing a positive portrayal of someone who looks like him on television was when he was 10 or 12 years old. He saw Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia and that made him believe that he could be a hero. His mustache is a tribute to Sharif.
He eats his mussel which contains about 14 calories and he considers it “amazing”.
Day 19: Igor makes toothpaste with the charcoal from his fire. After that, he slowly starts working on his log cabin again. He still needs a lot of logs and moves at a snail’s pace. He regrets not simply doing a double A-frame and jokes that what he really needs is a “call a friend” option.
Igor does not consider himself in competition with the other. Only contestants. It’s more like he’s competing against himself. Igor realizes that the thought of going home hurts his morale, so he concentrates on building his shelter.
Igor’s back is getting worse every day and he is worried about his heart. He has been beating irregularly, and he assumes that he is struggling to keep it going without much food. If he could catch a fish or a hare, he would be of great help. He is living on a diet of algae.
Day 20: She didn’t sleep well and admits that she is at the limit of what her body can handle. Stretching doesn’t really help his back, his heart continues to bother him and he’s forced to tap before he does any real damage to his body.
He’s disappointed that he didn’t last three weeks, but he can’t risk permanent injury to his back or heart.
Tom, age 35, Earlysville, VA
Day 18: Tom completed only one wall of his permanent structure after all this time. He heads out fishing, but a Whiskey Jack catches his attention first and shoots him dead. He’s a pretty bird and Tom didn’t want to shoot him, but he needs food.
Tom is going to use the bird’s feathers as flies as a way to honor the bird’s sacrifice. He doesn’t anticipate that the bird will taste delicious as it belongs to the crow family. Tom hopes he can combine it with fish in a stew to make it taste better.
He pulls a decent sized brook trout out of his honey hole, thankful that the area is still bearing fruit.
Tom cooks his fish and prepares it on a plate made of little twigs, a meal he believes rivals high-class restaurants in New York.