The host of Primitive Technology on YouTube is becoming a survival celebrity, but his videos are distinctly different from those you’ll find on mainstream TV survival shows. There’s no fancy title sequence, dramatic music, slick editing, or exaggerated sense of danger in his videos. In fact, this Australian bushcraft aficionado doesn’t speak a word on camera, use any voice-over narration, or even play background music. While remaining anonymous, shirtless, and barefoot, he silently demonstrates survival techniques.
Despite what some might consider extremely barebones production values, Primitive Technology continues to rake in millions of views with each new video. The reason behind this is simple: the host uses a no-nonsense approach to surviving in the wild using time-tested methods. In case you can’t tell, we like that a lot. Each time he uploads a new clip — which is rarely more than once a month — we get excited.
The latest video is titled simply “Shrimp Trap”, and shows 7 minutes worth of footage of the host constructing and using a basket-and-funnel-style trap. The trap itself is woven from strips of lawyer cane, a type of palm tree common in Australia. Once the trap was completed, a funnel was woven from sticks and vines, and inserted narrow-end-first into the basket. This allows shrimp (or fish) to enter the trap, but prevents them from escaping.
Surprisingly, the host says in the video description that no bait was necessary. He writes, “Bait is not necessary to catch shrimp as they will be naturally be drawn to the fish trap out of curiosity. But scraps from previous shrimp may be used to bring in new ones (they are cannibalistic) or other fish like eels.” After placing the shrimp trap in a shaded area of a stream, he caught two shrimp, and placed them in a baked clay pot full of water. Then he started a friction fire — his experience makes this look easy — and boiled the water using the hot rock boiling method. He even boiled some yams as a side dish to go with his shrimp.
Check out the full video below, and see how many techniques you can recognize. Like all Primitive Technology videos, it’s packed with approachable survival skills.
