I guess I didn't make it clear that I wasn't judging the 9-year old. I agree with all the comments here about him doing very well. I am very grateful he survived--we had a boy die a few years ago in Utah that was 150 meters from camp when he got lost. This is still hard to handle and for all of us involved in Scouting, and we work harder to prepare young people because of his death.

I agree that this boy could have gotten the "survival" mentality from Bear Grylls. If nothing else, that did help. And heaven only knows that his show is much better than a lot of the stuff on TV today.

Having said that, I've watched a few episodes of Bear Grylls show and it is obvious to me that people could get very hurt following his example.

Bear is entertainment rather than education, and it might be little unfair to beat him up for it. The kid could have chosen to base his survival plan on Sponge Bob or Jackass, with less favorable results. Most of my early survival training came from Ramar of the Jungle and Wile E. Coyote episodes, which tended to serve me poorly.

+1 on that

While Bear does go for the spectacular and does often do some very silly things ect.. I will say that if the show saved this boys life and helped him do at least one smart thing to help him get rescued, then the show was worth the cost of production.

Sometimes the best thing a show or a class or a story like Man Vs. Wild can do is inspire.. The show gave the boy enough courage and confidance to survive and that means it did it's job.

I'm sure that's sound advice in some terrain. But in others, notably in some mountainous terrain, following a watercourse often leads you into an increasinly steep, dangerous, narrow, thicket-choked ravine, where you are more likely to get hurt and less likely to be spotted by searhers. There are few hard and fast rules.

This is typical media hype.

Boy watches Bear Grylls; boy gets lost in woods; boy fails to die. Therefore Bear Grylls saved him!

This is arguing post hoc ergo propter hoc. Was there a single piece of advice from Bear Grylls that led to his survival or rescue? Is there any actual relationship between the show and his surviving?

Stories like this one annoy me.