Weta
Male Wellington tree weta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Suborder:	Ensifera
Superfamily:	Stenopelmatoidea, Rhaphidophoroidea
Family:	Anostostomatidae, Rhaphidophoridae

Weta is the name given to about 70 insect species endemic to New Zealand. There are many similar species around the world, though most are in the southern hemisphere. The name comes from the Māori word 'wētā' and is the same in the plural (like 'sheep'). The Māori word for the giant weta is 'wētā punga' (lumpy or jointed weta).^[1]

General characteristics[link]

Many weta are large by insect standards and some species are among the largest and heaviest in the world. Their physical appearance is like a katydid or long-horned grasshopper or a cricket, but the hind legs are enlarged and usually very spiny. Many are wingless. Because they can cope with variations in temperature, weta are found in a variety of environments including alpine, forests, grasslands, caves, shrub lands and urban gardens. They are nocturnal and all New Zealand species are flightless. Different species have different diets. Most weta are predators or omnivores preying on other invertebrates, but the tree and giant weta eat mostly lichens, leaves, flowers, seed-heads and fruit.

Weta can bite with powerful mandibles. Tree weta bites are painful but not particularly common. Weta can inflict painful scratches, with the potential of infection, but their defence displays consist of looking large and spiky, and they will retreat if given a chance. Tree weta arc their hind legs into the air in warning to foes and then strike downwards so that the spines could scratch the eyes of a predator. Pegs or ridges at the base of the abdomen are struck by a patch of fine pegs at the base (inner surface) of the legs and this action makes a distinctive sound. These actions are also used in defence of a gallery by competing males. The female weta looks as if she has a stinger, but it is an ovipositor, which enables her to lay eggs inside rotting wood^[2] or soil. Some species of Hemiandrus have very short ovipositors, related perhaps to their burrowing into soil and laying their eggs in a special chamber at the end of the burrow.

New Zealand had no land mammals (apart from native bats) before humans arrived, and ecological niches occupied by mammals in other parts of the world were taken by non-mammals. The weta’s place in the ecosystem is comparable to that held by mice and other rodents elsewhere in the world. For example, they are hunted by an owl, the morepork, New Zealand’s only surviving native owl. Weta pass seeds of some plant species through their digestive tracts unharmed, thus acting as effective seed dispersers.^[3] It is yet to be seen how decreases in weta populations are affecting native plant species that may rely on the weta's help. The weta's lifestyle and habitat, where it may choose to remain concealed in suburban environments until unexpectedly confronted, combined with its notoriously unfriendly appearance, make it a frequent victim of irrational human aggression.

Taxonomy and evolution[link]

Fossilized orthoptera have been found in Russia, China, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but the relationships are very open to different interpretations. Certainly most weta of both families are in the southern hemisphere lands. Pratt, Morgan-Richards and Trewick think that weta were present in ancient Gondwanaland before New Zealand separated from it^[4] although it is also possible they dispersed as they must have done so to colonise New Caledonia and the Chatham Islands. Although they are of an ancient lineage the present species are quite young which conflicts with those earlier ideas about dispersal of weta forebears around the southern hemisphere (Wallis et al. 2000).

Giant, tree, ground, and tusked weta are all members of the family Anostostomatidae (formerly in the Stenopelmatidae, but recently separated (Johns, 1997)). Cave weta are members of the family Rhaphidophoridae called cave crickets or camel crickets elsewhere, in a different Ensiferan superfamily.

Giant weta[link]

Poor Knights giant weta (Deinacrida fallai) - this specimen has an overall length of 200 mm (8 in)

There are 11 species of giant weta (Deinacrida spp.), most significantly larger than other weta, which are themselves large by insect standards. They are heavy insects with a body length of up to 100 mm (4 in) excluding their lengthy legs and antennae, and weigh about 20–30 g. A captive giant weta (Deinacrida heteracantha) filled with eggs reached a record 70 g, making it one of the heaviest documented insects in the world ^[5] and heavier than a sparrow. The largest species of giant weta is the Little Barrier Island weta, also known as the wetapunga. Giant weta tend to be less social and more passive than other weta. They are classified in the genus Deinacrida, which is Greek for terrible grasshopper. They are found primarily on small islands off the coast of the main islands, and are examples of island gigantism.

Tree weta[link]

Tree weta (Hemideina) are those most commonly encountered in suburban settings in the North Island. They are up to 40 mm long and most commonly live in holes in trees formed by beetle and moth larvae or where rot has set in after a twig has broken off. The hole, called a gallery, is maintained by the weta and any growth of the bark surrounding the opening is chewed away. They readily occupy a preformed gallery in a piece of wood (a weta motel) and can be kept in a suburban garden as pets. A gallery might house a harem of up to ten juveniles of both sexes, females and one male. Tree weta are nocturnal. Their diet consists of plants and small insects. The males have much larger jaws than the females, though both sexes will hiss and bite when threatened.

Female Wellington tree weta

There are seven species of tree weta:

• The Auckland tree weta Hemideina thoracica (also called tokoriro) can be found throughout the North Island apart from the Wellington-Wairarapa region.
• The Wellington tree weta H. crassidens occupies Wellington, the Wairarapa, the northern parts of South Island, and the West Coast.
  • H. crassidens crassicruris was described from Stephens Island but is now recognized as H. crassidens.
• H. trewicki in Hawke's Bay.
• H. femorata in Marlborough and Canterbury.
• A rare H. ricta species in Banks Peninsula.
• The West Coast bush weta H. broughi largely overlaps with the Wellington tree weta in Nelson and the northern portion of the West Coast.
• H. maori, the mountain stone weta, lives in the drier areas of the South Island high country from the Kaikoura Ranges south to Rock and Pillar Range near Dunedin. At most sites it lives on the ground, under stones or in crevices but in at least two island (within lakes) sites which have not been modified greatly it happily lives both in trees and on the ground.

Mountain stone weta can survive being frozen for months in a state of suspended animation down to temperatures of -10°C. This is because their haemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood) contains special proteins that prevent ice from forming in their cells. It also displays the defensive behaviour of "playing dead", by lying still for a short time on its back with legs splayed and claws exposed and jaws wide open ready to scratch and bite.

When the territories of species overlap, as with the related species H. femorata and H. ricta on Banks Peninsula, they may interbreed, although offspring are sterile.

Tusked weta[link]

Tusked weta are distinctive because of the males having long curved tusks projecting forward from their jaws. The tusks are used to push an opponent; they are not used for biting. The females are similar to ground weta. Tusked weta are mainly carnivorous, eating worms and insects. They consist of three species: the Northland tusked weta Hemiandrus monstrosus, now named Anisoura nicobarica; the Middle Island tusked weta Motuweta isolata; and a newly-discovered Raukumara tusked weta, Motuweta riparia. The Northland tusked weta lives in tree holes similar to tree weta. The Middle Island tusked weta, also called the Mercury Island tusked weta after the islands on which it lives, was discovered in 1970. It is a ground-dwelling weta, covering its shallow burrows with leaves. The Middle Island weta is the most endangered weta species and a Department of Conservation breeding programme is establishing new colonies on other islands of the Mercury Island group. The Raukumara was discovered in 1996, in the Raukumara Range near the Bay of Plenty. There are probably more species still to be identified.

Ground weta[link]

Ground weta are classified in the genus Hemiandrus. There are about 40 species of ground weta in New Zealand and several very similar ones in Australia. They are also very like the Californian Cnemotettix—a similarity perhaps due to their very similar habits and habitat. Most of the Hemiandrus have not been described. They hide in burrows in the ground during the day and those that live in open ground (e.g., H. focalis) conceal the exit hole with a specially made perforated door. During the night ground weta hunt invertebrate prey and eat fruit.

Cave weta[link]

The 60 species of cave weta have extra-long antennae, and may have long, slender legs and a passive demeanour. Although they have no hearing organs on their front legs like species of Hemideina and Deinacrida some (e.g., Talitropsis spp.) are very sensitive to ground vibrations sensed through pads on their feet. Specialised hairs on the cerci and organs on the antennae are also sensitive to low frequency vibrations in the air. Cave weta may be active within the confines of their caves during the daytime, and those individuals close to cave entrances venture outside at night. But most species are forest dwellers and a few are to be found in the high alpine screes living among the broken rock that are covered with snow up to six months of the year. The weta stay frozen until spring time. New Zealand species are classified in several genera in subfamily Macropathinae of family Rhaphidophoridae, and are very distant cousins of the other types of weta.

• Weta2.jpg

  Face

• Weta3.jpg

  Lower leg (tarsus) with two claws and sensory pads

• Weta4.jpg

  Upper leg

• Weta5.jpg

  Underside with parasites

Conservation[link]

Although the weta had native predators in the form of birds (especially the weka and kiwi), reptiles and bats before the arrival of humans, introduced species such as cats, hedgehogs, rats (including kiore) and mustelids have caused a sharp increase in the rate of predation. They are also vulnerable to habitat destruction caused by humans and modification of their habitat caused by introduced browsers. New Zealand’s Department of Conservation considers that 16 of the 70 species of weta are now at risk. Programmes to prevent extinctions have been implemented since the 1970s.

Some examples of especially endangered species are even tracked by radio beacons.^[6]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Johns, P. M. (1997). "The Gondwanaland weta: family Anostostomatidae (formerly in Stenopelmatidae, Henicidae or Mimnermidae): nomenclatural problems, world checklist, new genera and species". Journal of Orthoptera Research (Orthopterists' Society) 6 (6): 125–138. DOI:10.2307/3503546. JSTOR 3503546. 
• Steve Trewick; Mary Morgan-Richards. "New Zealand Invertebrate Speciation". Archived from the original on 2006-02-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20060203011652/http://awcmee.massey.ac.nz/nzinsects/index.html. Retrieved 2006-05-08. 
• Greg H Sherley (1998). "Threatened Weta Recovery Plan". Department of Conservation. http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/science-and-technical/tsrp25.pdf. Retrieved 2007-11-07. 
• Wallis, G. P.; Morgan-Richards, M., Trewick, S.A (2000). "Phylogeographical pattern correlates with Pliocene mountain building in the alpine scree weta (Orthoptera, Anostostomatidae)". Molecular Ecology 9 (6): 657–666. DOI:10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.00905.x. PMID 10849282. 

External links[link]

• New Zealand Department of Conservation’s page on weta
• Weta from New Zealand
• Bug identification - Orthoptera
• Kiwi Conservation Club
• Sexual selection research on weta
• Wētā in Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• A Key to the Tree and Ground Wetas of New Zealand in Tuatara: Volume 6, Issue 1, January 1956 - New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
• The Secret Life of Wetas - with insect expert George Gibbs
• Design and use of artificial refuges for monitoring adult tree weta

Bear Grylls
Born	Edward Michael Grylls (1974-06-07) 7 June 1974 (age 38) United Kingdom
Residence	A barge moored by Battersea Bridge on the River Thames, England[1] An island on Llŷn Peninsula, Abersoch, North Wales[2]
Occupation	Chief Scout Adventurer Explorer Author Motivational speaker[3] Television presenter
Spouse	Shara Cannings Knight[4]
Children	Jesse, Marmaduke,[5] and Huckleberry[6]
Parents	Sir Michael Grylls Lady Grylls (née Sarah Ford)
Website
BearGrylls.com

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (born 7 June 1974) is an English adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Man vs. Wild, known as Born Survivor^[7] in the United Kingdom. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35.

Personal life[link]

Grylls grew up in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland until the age of 4 when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.^[8][9] He is the son of the late Conservative party politician Sir Michael Grylls and Lady Sarah Grylls.^[10] Lady Grylls was the daughter of Patricia Ford,^[11] briefly an Ulster Unionist Party MP, and cricketer and businessman Neville Ford. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, a cardio-tennis coach, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.^[12]

Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club,^[13] and Birkbeck, University of London,^[14] where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. 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. He practices yoga and ninjutsu. At age eight he became a Cub Scout.^[15] He speaks English, Spanish, and French.^[16] Grylls is a Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.^[17]

Although Grylls was christened 'Edward' he has legally changed his forename to 'Bear'.^[18] Grylls married Shara Grylls (née Cannings Knight) in 2000.^[4][11] They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke,^[19] and Huckleberry.^[6]

Military service[link]

After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army and hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim.^[20] Grylls joined the British Army and served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R) for 3 years until 1996.

In 1996, he suffered a freefall 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".^[21] According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralysed 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^[21] before being discharged 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 for services to charity and human endeavour.^[22]

Everest[link]

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and entered the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest^[23], just eighteen months after injuring his back. (James Allen, an Australian-British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, but who has dual citizenship, reached the summit at age 22.^[24][25] The feat has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and, at age 19, by Rob Gauntlett.)

Other expeditions[link]

Circumnavigation of the UK[link]

In 2000, Grylls, led the first team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked for 22 miles in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.^[26]

Crossing the North Atlantic[link]

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on the first unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Arctic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat^[27]. Suffering weeks of frozen spray and icebergs, battling force 8 gale winds, hypothermia, and storms in an eleven-metre-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by The Perfect Storm, Grylls and his team were just barely able to finish the journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland.

Paramotoring over Angel Falls[link]

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 waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude[link]

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 dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas[link]

In 2007, Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a Parajet paramotor over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest.^[28] Grylls 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 Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK.^[29]

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.^[30]

Journey Antarctica 2008[link]

In 2008, Bear 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.^[31]

Longest indoor freefall[link]

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.^[32] The previous record was 1 hr 36 mins 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[link]

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.^[33]

Media[link]

Grylls entered television work with an appearance in an advertisement for Sure deodorant, featuring his ascent of Mount Everest. Bear was also used by the UK Ministry of Defence to head the Army's anti-drugs TV campaign, and featured in the first ever major advertising campaign for the world-renowned department store Harrods. Grylls has been a guest on television programs, including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Attack of the Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Harry Hill's TV Burp. Grylls recorded two advertisements for Post's Trail Mix Crunch Cereal, which aired in the US from January 2009. He also appeared as a distinguished instructor in Dos Equis' Most Interesting Academy in a webisode named "Survival in the Modern Era". He appeared in a five-part web series that demonstrates urban survival techniques and features Grylls going from bush to bash. He also has marketed the Alpha Course, a course on the basics of the Christian faith. Warner Bros. had asked Grylls to appear in its remake of the film Clash of the Titans^[34]

Grylls is a best-selling author. Grylls' first book, titled Facing Up, went into the UK top 10 best-seller list, and was launched in the USA entitled The Kid Who Climbed Everest. About his expedition and achievements climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. Grylls' second book Facing the Frozen Ocean was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004. His third book was written to accompany the series Born Survivor: Bear Grylls. (Released in America in April 2008 to the Man vs. Wild Discovery television show) It features survival skills learned from some of the world's most hostile places. This book reached the Sunday Times Top 10 best-seller list. He also wrote an extreme guide to outdoor pursuits, titled Bear Grylls Outdoor Adventures. In 2011 Bear released his autobiography Mud, Sweat and Tears. and it is still currently the best-selling book in Australia and the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

He has a series of children's adventure survival books titled: Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods, Mission Survival: Way of the Wolf, Mission Survival: Sands of the Scorpion and Mission Survival: Tracks of the Tiger.

[edit] Escape to the Legion

Grylls filmed a four-part TV show in 2005, called Escape to the Legion, which followed Grylls and eleven other "recruits" as they took part in a shortened re-creation of the French Foreign Legion's basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4,^[35] and in the USA on the Military Channel.^[36] In 2008, it was repeated in the UK on the History Channel.^[37]

[edit] Born Survivor / Man vs. Wild

Grylls hosts a series titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls for the British Channel 4 and broadcast as Man vs. Wild in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.A., and as Ultimate Survival on the Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series features Grylls dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive. Man vs. Wild debuted in 2006 and went on to become the number one cable show in all of America and now reaches a global audience of over 1.2 billion viewers.^[19] The second season premièred in the US on 15 June 2007, the third in November 2007, and the fourth in May 2008.

The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, 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.^[38][39] Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.

In some early episodes, Man vs. Wild / Born Survivor was criticised by some sources for misleading viewers about some of the situations in which Grylls finds himself. Discovery and Channel 4 television subsequently pledged production and editing transparency and clarification related to the criticism.

In March 2012, Discovery Channel terminated its productions with Grylls due to contract disputes.^[40]

[edit] Worst Case Scenario

Grylls' latest project is titled Worst Case Scenario and airs on Discovery in the USA. It is based on the popular books of the same name.^[41]

Chief Scout[link]

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.^[42] 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.^[43][44]

Charities[link]

Many of Grylls' expeditions and stunts have raised money for charitable organisations.^{[citation needed]} Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to young people in the United Kingdom.^[19] He is also vice president for The JoLt Trust, a small charity that takes disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people on challenging month-long expeditions.

Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 accomplishment of taking a powered para-glider higher than Mount Everest. Grylls's held the highest ever dinner party at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft) in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His successfully circumnavigating Britain on jet skis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces Help, a British-based charitable organisation set up to help former, and serving members of the British Armed Forces, and their families and dependents. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book Facing the Frozen Ocean was in aid of The Prince's Trust. His 2005 attempt to para-motor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope and Homes for Children.^[45] In August 2010, Grylls continued his fund-raising work for Global Angels by undertaking an expedition through the Northwest Passage in a rigid inflatable boat. Many of his expeditions also support environmental causes such as his Antarctica expedition and his circumnavigation of Britain which tested a pioneering new fuel made from rubbish.

In 2011, Grylls was in New Zealand during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Following the incident, he appeared on New Zealand advertisements encouraging people to donate money to help rebuild the city.

Other work[link]

Outside of TV, Grylls works as a motivational speaker, giving speeches worldwide to corporations, churches, schools, and other organisations.^[46] He is also a spokesperson for and owner of a Juice Plus franchise. Grylls has his own outdoor survival clothing range produced by British manufacturer Craghoppers as well as a knife manufactured by Gerber.

See also[link]

• Ranulph Fiennes, British adventurer and a hero of Grylls' growing up^[47]
• Bruce Parry, British adventurer and TV presenter
• Les Hiddins, Australian survival expert and TV presenter
• Les Stroud, Canadian survival expert and TV presenter
• Ray Mears, English survival expert and TV presenter

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bear Grylls

• BearGrylls.com official website
• Bear Grylls on Twitter
• ScoutBase.org (UK) "Meet the Chiefs"