So I was watching PBS Nature on Evolution. They were showing some chimpanzees who were living in a very hot weather and they went looking for water. Soon they came upon a pond of water which looked dark and dirty with dead stuff, with various mosquitoes etc swarming around the water. The chimpanzee examined it and decided not to drink it. Instead it proceeded to dig a 3 to 4 inch wide hole and probably a 5 to 6 inch deep one close to the pond. Pretty soon clean beautiful water starts forming in the hole it had dug - pretty much filtered by the sand. It then proceeded to drink it along with its kids. I thought this was a neat idea to try in the wild. I mean we have all come up with questionable water and usually decide not to take the water because of the quality - I have done this many times in some sections of CT and AZT. I am going to try this next time I come across a questionable pond/lake!!
What I learned from a Chimpanzee.....:-) Get clean water from a dirty yucky pond....
SkillsMy neighbors no longer stand at our adjoining fence trying to harass me. Such a great trick to learn.
ha ha!
I swallowed a chimps nut before. Now I have their superpowers bro
They do that all the time in naked and afraid.
came to say the same and in the episode I watched last night, the guy got stretchered out of there
Yes, It filters the water like a sand filter which doesn't filter out microscopic cysts.
So it is safer than most water but can still give you issues if the water has cysts.
There is a documentary about where a sand filter was being used for a large city's water system and there was an issue with feces being dumped in the water system along with agricultural runoff into the great lakes. A bunch of people got sick and several died. It is only an hour long but very good information given about water quality and how sand filters work.
This reminds me of that public well/pump/tap in London in the 1800's that had a unique, refreshing taste. Turned out it was because of the mineral content in the water - calcium, especially.
That calcium content was because the water flowed through a graveyard.
Many hundreds of people died from drinking the water before they figured it all out.
Ghost water!
It’s crazy how far down this comment is. Do not fuck with your water. A purifier is like a few ounces. Why would you gamble with hydration.
Digging a coyote well is such a gamble. In a survival situation it makes sense.
On top of cysts, viruses can also contaminate your water, you are also guessing if where you dug your hole is not contaminated. It is SO easy to contract giardia from cross contamination.
I know this as a “coyote well” - there are some nice tutorials on it on YouTube. Hopefully the chimps can earn a commission on their content.
Gypsy Well in the UK
Not so well in Africa
The expected lifespan of chimpanzees in wild is 30 years, and the ones in captivity can live more than 60 years. Good luck!
Good bot!
Isn't this kind of thing what a Sawyer filter is for? Here's a photo of visibly dirty water going in and clear water coming out: https://i.imgur.com/49H65wy.jpg Source was a mostly dried up stagnant bit of water with frogs in it.
You could use the sand as a simple prefilter to take larger gunk, mud, algae, etc. out of the water.
Then take the cleaner water from the sand hole, and run that through the Sawyer to remove giardia.
Yes! It would be cool to see a video clip of this in action.
Thanks for that, but .... Not really a sand hole. I get that one has to use a scoop sometimes to get water. And one has be careful to not stir up mud and debris when scooping. The video also reminded me of repairiing my lawn irrigation system. :)
This is the way.
The filter would clog up very fast though.
That was not my experience and has not been my experience. I do bring some Water Wizard (PAC flocculent) along if I think I will need it. Here's a video of Colorado River water: https://i.imgur.com/cFWb9ul.mp4 https://imgur.com/dyQhX0o But no worries, you should give sand filtering a go.
Even if you backflow after every trip with the Sawyer, the flow decreases over time if you filter questionable water. I skip questionable water even if I go thirsty for a bit. This side hole idea is a great alternative option.
Also, that water isn't the worst. I've been in a situation in Cypress National Park at the beginning of the dry season where I had to filter black water. I could only get a liter for the night before it clogged. It was a thirsty hike out in the morning and the filter was never the same. It would have been nice to know the side hole idea.
I guess I backflush some after every liter of water I filter BEFORE I disconnect the blue coupler from my bottle. I realize that not everybody does this, but I happen to know that chimpanzees do. Please don't wait to backflush at the end of a trip though you should definitely clean your filter thoroughly when you get home.
I don't use the gravity setup. I have tried backflowing a bit in the field and I'm not sure how much it helps... With the black water hole, backflowing was just a waste of clean water. Best to choose water wisely and filter immediately when you get home.
I skip questionable water even if I go thirsty for a bit.
Sort your priorities. Sawyers are very cheap compared to almost any other UL hiking gear, and should be considered as expendable as your carbide pole tips.
The guy probably hates getting his waterproofs wet so goes without in a shower.
You replace your carbide tips every 1000+ miles. I'm not going to replace my Sawyer after one bad source of water if I can avoid it. And I'd rather go thirsty for an hour or two than deal with the low flow for the rest of the trip. Priorities sorted.
Do you buy a new Sawyer Squeeze every few trips? How often do you replace carbide tips? Do you eat Mountain House meals? Do you bring soap? I'm guessing you and I have very different priorities.
You've gone from "the flow decreases over time" - which is true - to "replace after one bad source of water" - which is obviously ridiculous unless you're literally scooping fine sand into it.
Do you buy a new Sawyer Squeeze every few trips? How often do you replace carbide tips? Do you eat Mountain House meals? Do you bring soap? I'm guessing you and I have very different priorities.
Wow, straight to the personal attacks! If we're reciprocating, I guess you hike alone, right? Because you don't seem to play nice with others.
"Sort your priorities" is just as much of an attack as my questions were. You brought up priorities, I asked about them, and then you escalate by saying "I don't play nice with others." Maybe I suck, but you suck too in this case... Let's move on.
There's nothing worse than a low flow Sawyer Squeeze. One bad source knocks off at least 10% flow long term. I'd rather put up with 2 hours of thirst, than low flow for every trip thereafter. That's my point. That's my priority.
Learned this in a survival class some 40+ yrs ago. Take a sock, fill it with sand, gravel and dirt, filter water down through the sock!
All I ever learned was to pee into a snake skin and tie it round my neck
I fuckin love Bear Grylls when I was in my twenties and I actually drank my own piss once just because he did it. It’s just salty and warm it ain’t that bad. Never did it into a snake skin tho lol
Sure bud, I think you just wanted an excuse to drink piss /s
I guess I just 6 years of backpacking :-) I thought it was pretty cool idea!
Thanks for this!!
Note it will remove some of the visual detritus. It won’t do anything much to make the water any safer.
Sounds cool to me. I mean, you're still going to need a water system capable of dealing with whatever you might encounter (this won't work on all sources), but when it's plausible, it could definitely spare your filter a bit or at least save you some flocculent or a tiresome "pre-filter" routine.
Hey OP I tried this on the cow troughs and it didn’t work. Mods get this guy for misinformation 🔫
Les Stroud did this in a survivorman episode
That would work fine with "natural" dirt, but I doubt it would filter out toxic chemicals, heavy metals, etc, i.e. man made stuff. Sawyer, Katadyn et al also won't filter those out.
That's awesome! I could have used this idea after filtering black water with limited success. I thought of another idea in case you can't dig. You'd need 3 vessels, 2 dirty and one clean. Fill up one dirty bottle, wait for all the particulates to sink to the bottom, pour the cleaner water in the second dirty bottle, filter into the clean bottle. Just another option.
Borderline bushcraft despite the dearth of heavy objects.
But seriously, that is a cool technique for emergency situations. But it’s not LNT and hopefully none of us ever need it.
Borderline bushcraft despite the dearth of heavy objects.
What? Do you know how heavy a chimpanzee is?
Is my water filtration chimpanzee considered worn weight?
They taught me I open a banana backwards. Open it at the seen end
In the UK I’ve been taught this being called a gypsy well! As someone else said, it’s a good method for pre filtration, but follow up with sawyer filtration or boiling should be guaranteed.
Please note that this water may appear turbid but hence has been partly filtered in the process so is safer.
I learned how to open a banana better from a chimp also. Once I saw it I was “oh yeah that makes more sense. Wtf was I doing it wrong way”
Ha ha! You fool - once you get a clean pool of water - you of course want to filter it using any of the methods you want. Golly - hopefully you don't get a heart attack from all the anger :-) and idiotic assumptions you have made to come to conclusions only your primitive brain can make....
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Another monkey related water source tip is to trap one, feed it salt for a few days and release it and follow it.
Not LNT at all. Actually quite douchy to dig a hole every time you need a drink.
Since this is a UL sub, you don't even need a filter to deal with gross water. I carry an extra bottlecap that I cut out the center of and replaced with mesh from one of the gold coffee filters. This filters pretty much all visible floaties. Everything else gets nuked with aquamira. And no disturbance to the soil.
well....you would do this only under extreme conditions of course....digging the hole. I also carry a filter like that.....but still....
"I have done this many times"
Were you lying in the original post or this comment?
Ah! I meant - walked away from the dirty water...never dug etc...
I am going to try this the next time I come upon a questionable pond or lake
What is your problem?
Calmer than you are!
There’s leave no trace, and then there’s people like you. Why do you even go outside? Aren’t you concerned about the impacts you feet make on the ground? What about all the little bugs that you step on or run into?
Are you aware that 1) LNT doesn’t apply in survival situations (which is what this is for) and 2) if you dig a hole to get water, you can also fill in the hole with what you dug out when you are done?
never watched "naked and afraid"....
Chimpanzees can teach us a lot. My poo throwing abilities have greatly improved thanks to a Nat Geo documentary.