We all talk a big game when it comes to who is the manliest. But in our estranged lifestyles nowadays, let's be honest we pretty much live like kings with food at our beck and call and entertainment at the click of a button. We haven’t really struggled in life for the most part. But what would happen if things got out of control? Like let’s say that the government shut down (wait that already happened) and Wall Street went into chaos (happened!) and lost limited resources. IF, and I’m saying if that happened, it’s probably noticeable that other things might fail too. Lets say that technology stopped working and regular things that we were able to do were no longer easy to acquire and use.

There was a study that pointed out that if we did lose technology, that it would take at least another 100 years to recreate the ballpoint pen. So considering that, it would take quite awhile to actually get back to where we once were.

So what would you do? Now that you’re basically in the depths of despair, ran out of food supply, and have hardly any weapons to go hunting and to protect you and your family with.

One of the key things to find at such times are probably leaders; ones that know how to survive in such conditions that know a great deal about the outdoors, animals, culture, and other naturalistic things.  So here are the top ten Naturalists that can dominate any Apocalypse. Wait till you see their credentials…

Ranking each survivalist 10-1

10. 

• Name: Steve Backshall

• Age: 40 (born: april 21, 1973)
• Home Land: Surrey, United Kingdom
• Skill Level: Natural History Expert, Mountaineer, Commercial Diver, Kayak all disciplines, Endurance and Expeditions, First response medic, Martial arts, Canopy ropes access, Producer, Author
• Training: Exeter University with a degree in English and Theatre studies, Steve studied martial arts in Japan, attaining his black belt
• Occupation: british naturalist, writer & television presenter/host.
• Strengths: Sensationable desire to push the edge/ no limits
• Weakness: poisonous ants
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: swiss army watch
• Known for:  Lost Land of the Volcano, Lost Land of the Tiger, The One Show, Lost Land Of The Jaguar, EarthPulse, Britain's Lost World, Deadly 60
• Description: dived with great white, bull, great hammerhead, tiger sharks, caught king cobras, black mambas and lanceheads, had a redback spider crawl across his hand and bitten on screen by a caiman whilds searching for anaconda in an Argentinian swamp.

9. 

• Name: James Mandeville

• Age: over 35
• Home Land: British
• Skill Level: keen explorer, graduate psychologist, international author and columnist writing on survival and survival issues.
• Training: ex-army jungle, arctic and desert survival expert
• Occupation: ex-Army survival instructor/ Commissions undertaken for writing articles on survival for magazines, newspapers and giving advice to expeditions.
• Strengths: Intense military background, untethered taste of outdoors
• Weakness: Camera shy
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: Mind/hands/extensive military training and experience
• Some More Credentials: His training in survival (apart from the rigors thrown at me by life) was 23 years in the military, ten of which he spent teaching soldiers how to infiltrate, survive, fight in jungle and ex-filtrate. He spent a lot of time in a lot of jungle in South America and Asia. When I was a soldier, I was sent at short notice to trouble spots all over the world. I was highly trained in combat and survival, so were the men who went with me. We did get into difficult situations and we needed to use our knowledge and training in order to survive. He also have many years experience in other terrain, notable the Amazon, the African bush and climbing in various mountain regions including the Drakensburgh Mountains and the Andes; in all these places my survival knowledge has proved to be invaluable.
• Goal: “My mission is to pass on my survival knowledge through my writing to help and encourage others. However much you think you know about survival there is always more to learn, so you should read everything you can on the subject, I hope the free articles on this site are an inspiration and education to those interested in survival.”

 8. 

• Name: David Canterbury

• Age: born September 19, 1963 (age 50)
• Home Land: USA
• Skill Level: SPECULATIVE: u.s. army (sergeant, unit 984^th military police company)
• Training: Over 20 years of combined military and civilian survival: no no survival training annotated in military records.

-        US military Veteran 1981-1988: Dates of Service: 12/03/1981 to 11/25/1987. That is jut under 6 yrs not 7

-        Sniper: not US army sniper. He did atted a local 4^th ID Sniper/counter sniper class (2 wks 1986)

-        Scout: False. He only attended the Law Enforcement 95B course. He was an MP only, not a 19D scout.

-        SRT coordinator and instructor: he could have been a coordinator, but intil doctrine changed in 1993 (after he was out), you had to be an E-6 ssg in order to be an instructor. Cantebury never attained this rank

-        Joint service operations in central America 1986-87 honduras/Nicaragua): no record

-        Performed security escorts for military equipment in korea for specialized equipment to forward areas near the DMZ between north and south korea 1983-85: according to his military record, while stationed in south korea, he was an ID badge clerk.squad leader 4^th ID 1982-83: not unless they make privates squad leaders

-        Ranger: False

-        Instructor in close quarters combat in US, central America and Korea.

-        Military decorations

Army servie ribbon

Army good conduct ribbon

Overseas service ribbon

Army achievement medal

Expert badge with bars: auto rifle, pistol & hand grenade

Drivers badge

• Occupation: survival instructor
• Strengths: Doesn’t Care
• Weakness: Honesty
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: Bow and Arrow

7. 

• Name: Tom Brown

• Age: January 29, 1950
• Home Land: Toms River, New Jersey
• Skill Level: Toms River High School in 1968.
• Training:
• Occupation:
• Strengths: Tracker that doesn’t need to be connected to wifi is key when the grid goes offline, don’t ya think?
• Weakness: He was a child once. Then he turned 7 and everything changed.
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: Knife
• More info: The Tracker School was founded in 1978 by Tom Brown Jr, Americas most renowned Tracker, and Wilderness Survival expert. Based on the teachings of Stalking Wolf, the Apache elder from whom Tom began teaching, when he was seven years old, the school has expanded to include over 75 classes, divided into eight course tracks, of the teachings that Grandfather passed to tom. At the age of seven he and his childhood friend Rick were trained in tracking and wilderness survival by Rick's grandfather Stalking Wolf, who had relocated to the Pine Barrens wilderness near Toms River to be closer to Rick's family  

6. 

• Name: Cody Lundin

• Age:born March 15, 1958
• Home Land: Prescott Arizona
• Skill Level: Due to his intimate understanding of the physics, psychology and physiology of human survival, Cody is routinely featured as the consulting expert on real world emergencies fro national and international news outlets. He has trained private, corporate, and governmental agencies, thousands of students and dozens of national and international media sources in outdoor survival, primitive living skills and urban preparedness.
• Training: survival skills while wearing shorts in all weather and going barefoot
• Occupation: founder, director, and lead instructor of the Aboriginal Living Skills School, Lundin has been a co-host of the television series Dual Survival since 2010
• Strengths: Doesn’t need shoes or pants
• Weakness: Doesn’t have a fishin pole, uses his bare hands to fish
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: hands, bare feet
• Side note: Cody lives in a self designed, self reliant, passive solar earth home in the high desert wilderness of Northern Arizona in which he catches rain, composts wastes, and pays nothing for heating and cooling.

5. 

• Name: Daniel W. Shrigley

• Age: Over 35
• Home Land: U.S.
• Skill Level: wilderness/geo survival, catastrophic situations
• Training: is a Survivalist & Adventurer, Entrepreneur and Author, he is a 18 year, multiple combat and service veteran of the United States Army. Having served in South Korea in 1996-1997, then in combat in Iraq in 2004-2005, 2007-2008, 2009, 2012.
• Occupation: 18 year, combat and service veteran of the United States Army as well as his various contributions to the worlds of safety, survival and entertainment.
• Strengths: knowledge, experience, and good judgment
• Weakness: To many eggs only one basket
• Preferred Weapon/Tool:  “the club” is still one of the most effective weapons for defense and hunting. Practice throwing at a target for improved accuracy. Spear, bow and arrow are proven primitive weapons still used in the modern age. Again practice makes perfect with defense and hunting. 

4. 

• Name: Mykel Hawke

• Age: November 29, 1965 (age 47)
• Home Land: Fort Knox, KY
• Skill Level: Mykel joined the US Army in 1982. He served on active duty for a total of 12 years; he also served in the Reserves and Guard for another 12 years. He was a Sergeant First Class (E-7) before he took a commission as an Officer,18A. He held three Enlisted, Special Forces Military Occupational Skills (MOS):

• Training: He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from New York University and a Master of Science degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A combat veteran, Hawke served as both an enlisted soldier and a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Special Forces ("Green Berets"), attaining the rank of captain. He fought rebels and trained UN peacekeepers in war-torn Africa and did combat search and rescue missions during the drug war in Colombia. Also of note is that he has earned black belts in both Aikido and Judo.
• Occupation: Mykel Hawke is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer, best known for his role in the Discovery Channel series Man, Woman, Wild
• Strengths: Medical and communication fields, survival, green beret
• Weakness: Not having him on your side
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: Anything with a gun

3. 

• Name: Ray Mears

• Age: born 7 February 1964
• Home Land: Southern England on the North Downs
• Skill Level:
• Training: Self taught mostly/ war veteran instructor
• Occupation: English woodsman, instructor, author and TV presenter
• Strengths: Great teacher, well travelled, historical knowledge of survival situations, experience outdoors
• Weakness: Not a risk taker (weakness or strength? You decide!)
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: pocket knifes, axe, grill
• Motto: “Maximum efficiency from minimum effort”

2. 

• Name: Les Stroud

• Age: born October 20, 1961
• Home Land: Canada
• Skill Level: Stroud graduated from Mimico High School in the Mimico neighbourhood of Toronto. Stroud went on to complete the Music Industry Arts program at Fanshawe College inLondon, Ontario. Stroud worked for several years at the Toronto-based music video channel MuchMusic, and as a songwriter for the band New Regime before a Temagamicanoe trip sparked a career change. During this time he also worked as garbage collector for the City of Toronto. In 1990 Stroud became a guide for Black Feather Wilderness Adventures leading canoe excursions into the Northern Ontario wilds
• Training: Personal experience/ self taught, Stroud has extensive experience with survival and primitive living skills, initially training with expert David Arama. He went on to study with many others including John "Prairie Wolf" McPherson.
• Occupation: Filmmaker, Outdoor Adventure, Singer-Songwriter, Performer
• Strengths: lives off the land, hunts, grows own food, own survival techniques. If that’s not enough to be on Stroud’s team, then succumb to his musical prowessness.
• Weakness: Not enough time to play music…
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: Baladeo Multi-tool, bandana

1. 

• Name: Bear Grylss

• Age: born 7 June 1974
• Home Land: Donaghadee in County Down, Northern Ireland
• Skill Level: After leaving school, Grylls briefly considered joining the Indian Army and hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim. Grylls joined the Territorial Army and served as a reservist with the Artists Rifles 21 Regiment, 21 SAS(R), for three years until 1996. In 1996, he suffered a free-fall parachuting accident in Zambia. His canopy ripped at 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae. Grylls later said: "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem". According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralyzed for life and at first it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. Grylls spent the next 12 months in and out of military rehabilitation at Headley Court before being discharged from his medical treatment and directing his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfil his childhood dream of climbing Mount Everest. In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve
• Training: Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club. He joined the army after leaving school. After he had left the army he studied part-time at Birkbeck, University of London School of Continuing Education, where he graduated with a BA degree in Spanish and Latin American studies in 2001. From an early age, he learned to climb and sail from his father, who was a member of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate. At age eight he became a Cub Scout. He speaks English, Spanish, and French. Grylls is a Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.
• Occupation: British adventurer, writer and television presenter
• Strengths: The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wadingrapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, eating deer droppings, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various "creepy crawlies" [insects], utilising the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device, free climbing waterfalls and using a bird guano/water enema for hydration. Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.
• Weakness: The Media
• Preferred Weapon/Tool: series of knives and survival equipment. 

Things you should know about Grylls…

Everest

On 16 May 1998, Grylls climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, 18 months after breaking three vertebrae in a parachuting accident. At 23, he was at the time among the youngest people to have achieved this feat. There is some controversy around whether he was, as claimed, the youngest Briton to have done so, as he was preceded by James Allen—an Australian climber with dual British citizenship who reached the summit in 1995 at age 22. The record was

Crossing the North Atlantic

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on an unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. Grylls and his team travelled in an eleven-metre-long boat and encountered force 8 gale wind with waves breaking over the boat while passing through icebergs in their journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland.

Paramotoring over Angel Falls

In 2005, Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft), dressed in full mess dressand oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This event was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas

In 2007, Grylls embarked on a record-setting Parajet paramotor in Himalayas near Mount Everest. He took off from 4,400 metres (14,500 ft), 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C (−76 °F). He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 9,000 metres (29,500 ft), almost 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) higher than the previous record of 6,102 metres (20,019 ft). The feat was filmed for Discovery Channelworldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK. While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.

The expedition provoked some controversy. Grylls initially reported on his blog to have broken a new world record by flying over Mount Everest, when in fact – though reaching a height greater than Everest – he did not actually fly over the top of the mountain but was in fact some miles away from it. Some explorers have cast doubts on the veracity of other aspects of the flight, such as its purportedly record-setting height, which would have put him into the "death zone" where the amount of oxygen in the air is insufficient to sustain human life.

Journey Antarctica 2008

In 2008, Grylls lead a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica. This was raising funds for Global Angels kids charity and awareness for the potential of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30 mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down. He had to be medically evacuated.

Longest indoor freefall

Grylls, along with the double amputee Al Hodgson and the Scotsman Freddy MacDonald, set a Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest continuous indoor freefall. The previous record was 1 hour 36 minutes by a US team. Grylls, Hodgson, and MacDonald, using a vertical wind tunnel in Milton Keynes, broke the record by a few seconds. The attempt was in support of the charity Global Angels.

Northwest Passage expedition

In August 2010, Grylls lead a team of five to take an ice-breaking rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) through 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of the ice strewn Northwest Passage. The expedition intended to raise awareness of the effects of global warming and to raise money for children's charity Global Angels.

Chief Scout

On 17 May 2009, The Scout Association announced Grylls would be appointed Chief Scout following the end of Peter Duncan's five-year term in July 2009. He was officially made Chief Scout at Gilwell 24 on 11 July 2009 in a handover event featuring Peter Duncan in front of a crowd of over 3,000 Explorer Scouts. He is the tenth person to hold the position and the youngest Chief Scout since the role was created for Robert Baden-Powell in 1920.