We’re told that Australia is home to the world’s most deadly animals, but there’s nothing on this wide brown land that comes close to a grizzly bear. They’re big, they’re territorial, they can kill you with one swipe of their claws, and in season 8 of Alone the contestants are coming face to face with them on their own turf.
Alone is more than tough enough without throwing apex predators into the mix. Season 8 goes back to the basics, where contestants are dropped in a stretch of untouched wilderness with the bare minimum (or less) to survive, and then must live off the land by themselves for as long as possible. The last person standing wins: usually the final survivor has spent well over two months in the wild alone.
It’s not just a test of surviving without shelter. Contestants on Alone can often go days without eating, and when they do find food it might just be a few wild greens, or maybe a single fish – barely enough to survive on. The last to go home gets US$500,000; everyone else gets an experience they won’t soon forget.
Season 8 sees ten contestants dropped off at Chilko Lake, a glacial lake on a high mountain plain in Canada’s British Columbia. For these people, who range from environmental educators to wilderness survival instructors to prehistorical leather specialists (plus a lot of people who just really love living off the land), it’s stunning countryside. But you can’t live off beauty alone. Once there the contestants have to find shelter, figure out how to catch food… and then there’s the bears.
Season 8's ten, ready to start: who will last the longest? Source: Leftfield Pictures / A&E
Grizzly bears can grow to around 700 pounds, can run at over 30 km per hour – that’s faster than just about everyone reading this – and can climb trees. It’s been estimated that the bite of a grizzly bear could crush a bowling ball. If they want to attack you, you’re going to have a lot of trouble getting away. Stopping them? Not an option.
The good news is, bears rarely actively hunt humans. The bad news is, most bear attacks are the result of the bears being surprised while looking for food – and as most of the contestants on Alone spend most of their time out looking for food, the chances of a meeting are a lot higher than the humans might like.
So while the contestants battle the environment and their own limitations, there’s a constant threat lurking in the background. Trying to build a shelter, trying not to eat poisonous plants, trying to survive the freezing waters of the lake; they’re all just that little bit harder knowing that at any moment a creature twice their size could come lumbering towards them.
For contestants like Tim, hunting happens with the constant thought of what could be behind them. Source: Leftfield Pictures / A&E
Early on it’s tempting to think the bears will remain a distant threat. They’re big, but they’re not naturally aggressive, so keeping a low profile should minimise the danger… right? It’s not a spoiler to say that this is definitely not the case. And when later in the season a contestant decides it’s a good idea to see what the bears are up to, things take a very scary turn.
Does a bear come charging at one of the contestants in an extremely aggressive move (and is it also one of the more terrifying pieces of footage you’ll see this year)? No spoilers, but if you think the answer is “no” then you’re as wrong as the contestant who thought going out to look for a bear was a good idea.
Part of the subtext of Alone (yes, wilderness survival shows can have subtext), is just how far people can go to survive while still staying human. If the whole point of the show was simply to survive at any cost, then there are obviously ways of getting rid of the bears; leaving them alone is not only more challenging, but it’s the humane thing to do.
It's a whole new kind of danger. Source: Leftfield Pictures / A&E
This theme runs across the Alone line. It’s part of what makes the series in all its forms such compelling viewing. Over on the latest season of Alone: Denmark they have a no hunting rule – they’re only allowed to fish or forage. It makes the game more challenging, and it also demonstrates that there’s more ways to live in the wild than the traditional approach.
and , plus , and are now streaming on SBS On Demand. Alone Australia is coming to SBS and SBS On Demand in 2023. Jump into Alone season 8 here:
