We Caught & Ate Flying Fox On A Remote Island

This is home for the next two weeks. Look at the size of this beautiful mahi. Look at that big bloke. We're lucky enough to link up with some local mates of ours that are taking us hunting and foraging in their neck of the woods. This could be one of the most confronting, bizarre, but hopefully tasty catching cooks we've ever done. I'm super excited for this one, mate. Let's get straight into it. We've just come to the back of the village now where the guys are keen to show us how to make a bow and arrow and a slingshot so that we can go and hunt ourselves some dinner. Alvin scaled his way up this tree behind me here and he's looking for a perfect fork for a slingshot. You found one, bro? Happy? All right? Yeah? Happy with that? We've selected a couple of forks here and we're now just taking off the bark so that it can dry out quick because over the next few days or a week that bark would end up falling off anyway. So just getting that nice and smooth, taking any knots out and we'll go from there. Just short one, hey? Yeah. So Alvin's making one, Jimmy's making one, Brett's making one and I feel like I'm the weakest link. I've just, I don't want to say given up, but I've definitely stopped progressing as all of theirs look far superior and more deadly than mine. You happy with that? Yeah? That there is the little edge that's going to hold the rubber on. You slowly work that into a really nice handle. I'm keen to see you use it, bro. Get a pigeon, bat, mullet, anything. So how'd you go, mate? Did you learn something? I learned a lot. Is this your one that the kids are finishing off? Yeah, Max is finishing it off for me. He sort of looked at me and he said, mate, do you mind, um, could you mind just stop doing that and I'll take it from here. That's basically what he said. Thanks, Max. Appreciate it, man. We've got an old spear gun rubber here and we're just cutting it straight down the middle. It's a pretty slow and quite dangerous process. Want me to hold this one? Don't cut me, bro. This rubber's still too thick. We want more stretch in it, so we've halved it. Now we're going to quarter it and half it again. This is an old recycled tyre tube and Alvin is just cutting off really thin strips and that's what's going to get used to tie rubber onto the shanghai. Are you learning, boys? Maxi and Brett learning, yeah? Strong enough? Yeah. Yeah, happy? Strong enough? Almost done. It's to hold the rock or the seed. I'm just tying them off to the rubber. The boys are going to show me how they make a bow and arrow here. Bow and arrow can be incredibly useful when they're hunting for things like flying foxes, scrub turkeys, rogue chickens, anything. Let's see how they do it. First step is, of course, having to find the bow. They reckon this tree is the right one. That's the one for bow and arrow? Yeah. Okay. Step one seems to be thinning down one side of it. Not quite halfway and I reckon they're going to leave that middle part thicker. Thin down that top side, flip it over, thin down that bottom side and that will give it that flexibility that you want in a bow. I believe. We'll see how it works out. And backside? No. Not that. Yeah. Just front side? Starting to take shape. I'm going to flip him over and do the other side. Starting to look like a bow and arrow. Yeah. Small more here. Cut more here? Yeah, small here. Very approved so far. The next step is taking the outer bark off. Looking good, Barry? Yeah. This is really quite satisfying to do. It's got a nice soft bark. It just peels straight off with a sharp knife. I think this is the first bow and arrow that young Pat-Pat's making here under the guidance of Barry. So it's going to be cool to see him use it in action. It is a skill set that needs to be passed down because it's a very specific type of wood. Most wood, of course, if you bent it like that would just break straight in half. This one seems to be the prime choice around here. I must have cut that one too much. This is the one that Barry made. It looks far more professional than the one I made and just broke. So we'll probably use this one. There you go. That's starting to look pretty good, isn't it? The boys were saying they traditionally use a vine here but that would take a period of time to dry out. So in order to try and get something ASAP, just a bit of string will do. That's awesome. Let's go. I'm very impressed that you've made a bow faster than we've made a slingshot. You ready to catch a bat? Yeah? All right. There's the finished product. Alvin the hunter has done it again. All right, bro. Give it a test. Like he wants to test it out on one of the cows. It's a pretty big target. A lot bigger than a pigeon or a bat. It went high. And the safest place was the cow. Oh, nice. They've got such thick skin. That cow just wasn't phased at all. It was like, oh, bee stung me. Yeah, nice. One to get his eye in and now two for two on the not so wild cows. How do you use? Thumb right here. Yep, and that there, you put your thumb in the middle. One bat. Two bat. You've been eating rice, Max. All right, this is the target. We've got two very different weapons. We've got a slingshot. We've got a bow and arrow. Let's see if either of us can get close to the target. Put that on your head, mate. You go, mate. Back yourself. All right, there's a bat that's just flown in. Oh, close. Really close. Not far off, but bats are a small target. Yeah. Oh, close, yeah. Oh, there you go. Getting good. I'm going for a shot. You want to have a go, Alvin? You go, brother. Show us how to do it, mate. You show us how to kill them, bro. He was doing this week one. Yeah, week one of life. I'll tell you what. It is a bad afternoon to be a fruit bat, mate. We've got all sorts of weapons. Go, Pat-Pat. You're up. Alvin, what do you think? We can get one? Yeah. We're good enough? Yeah. Both being pretty generous. So a few different weapons here the locals are using. They've all got their time and place. So the slingshot, they're saying it's really good for knocking. ripe fruit out of the trees. The bow and arrow is really good for stalking up and getting those wildfowl in amongst the tight kind of areas. But to get the fruit bats out of the trees, which what we're going to be going for, is just, they reckon the best technique is throwing sticks. Basically, they're saying you can reload, chop another stick up, reload, reload. And you can kind of walk with maybe, you know, five or six sticks and try and knock one out. And then just everyone basically throws sticks until they hit it out. That's the idea. Bredo has shown us some incredible footage of the guys here hunting fruit bats in the past. We'll roll on that at the moment. And that is what we're trying to do at the moment. 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You film me, Pat-Pat? Just in case in a rare miracle, I get it. One shot. These are the nuts. Crack them in half and then there is the most delicious nut. And so we don't get them in Australia, mate. I remember eating them in New Guinea growing up and I've kind of been looking for them forever since. So good. They're the best. Yeah, mate. Half for you. Well-earned. Very tasty. I'm going to get out of the line of fire here, yeah. Yum. Good? Good black cocoa? Yeah. What have you spotted, mate? Alvin's pointed out a big orange tree that's pretty high to climb. We're going to give the slingshots a go to see if we can get one out. I feel like we should have done way more target practice. This is probably a good step if you, you know, get an orange out of the tree before we aim it like a moving fruit bat or something like that. I'm going to go the two for one. Slightly low. Rebound. That would have hit you, you'd be dead. Bit of power, hey? I hit the branch, it's not hard enough. The orange juice by the time Alvin hits it. Oh, that was so close. I'm going to go this high clump here. Oh, I actually hit the fruit. Yeah? I've damaged the fruit. If you went under it, you'd get a few drops. Yeah. Oh, you're kidding. Oh my god. Bullseye, bullseye. That was so impressive. Well done, mate. You could tell he was aiming not at the fruit, but at the branch above it, which knocked it out. That was so good. Well done, Alvin. That was like the sixth shot, maybe? Yeah, yeah. Into the pig pen. Beautiful, organic orange. That looks good. Yeah, tree-ripened orange. There you go, mate. Cheers, bro. That is so sweet, hey? Good? Really good. That was so good, man. Got some sticks. Is this for orange or for fruit bat? Anything, either an orange or a fruit bat. Whatever comes close. Oh, yeah. The fruit bats that eat the oranges. All right, well, let's keep walking and see what else we can find, hey? So the guys on the island here are pretty much totally reliant on hunting and gathering their meals, whether that's from the ocean surrounding the island or from the jungle today. And that's what we're going to be doing this afternoon, heading into the jungle to see what we can come up with. We've always all stopped here, but some kind of a fruit. What is it, mate? What have you found? I've got a noni tree, which grows a noni fruit. And when they get ripe, apparently it's a local remedy for cancer, which is a big call, I know, but either as a preventative to kill cancer cells or when you are sick with a certain type of cancer, you squeeze it, crush it up and squeeze it, strain it through a cloth and then the juice, you drink that and it's meant to be really good for you. It doesn't smell too inviting. Oh, yeah, big tree growing out wild. The back of the village here. We'll keep walking. Oh, snake? Where's his head? You poison snakes here? Oh, yeah. What kind of snake do you reckon he is, mate? Oh, I don't know. Look, Breto, you're probably the best to ask. Is it a little tree python? Yeah, mate. They're the only python we have here. Yeah? Those ones, yeah. And probably should have asked you before I grabbed it, but venomous or non-venomous? No, it doesn't. No? They'd be eating insects and little rats and... I'll show you what happens. All right, so if you're facing troubles in the villages or anything. Yeah. Grab it like this and do it like this. Barry, which one's ripe, do you think? Oh, the very top there? Okay. The boys have pointed out a navelle tree in local language here. It's got probably the most delicious nut inside it, but there's a whole bunch of them all the way out there. Oh, bullseye. This is amazing, mate. Alvin just spotted a pigeon in there. Maybe as I was sneaking in, I might have spooked it, but hopefully we can get some protein to add to the dinner plate tonight. It's pretty amazing. Any of you viewers that might have been watching the channel for a while, you might recognize young Pat-Pat from maybe about four years ago when he could barely walk and he was swinging around a machete like this. And a few people in the comments said, oh, that's, you know, irresponsible parenting. He shouldn't have a knife, but look at him now. He's, you know, one of the most capable young blokes I've ever met. And he's following in pretty decent footsteps. His old man, Barry, is probably one of the most capable bushmen we've met, you know. You can hear this massive tree behind us is teeming with bird life. And the reason being, it's a big beech almond or nut-a-poa in language, nut-a-poa. Or beech almond, pacific almond, Indian almond, but they load up with quite a large green fruit. And on the inside of that is a really beautiful almond-tasting nut. You got a slingshot, mate? There's one really close here, that green one. Yep. So there's no excuses to miss it then, is that what you're saying? I want a bit of a tougher assignment. I'll go for it here, eh? Yeah. Oh! Slightly low. Took out the bird in the neighboring island. Thank you. Take two. Miss, take three. There. You beauty. That would cause enough damage to a fruit bat to bring him out of the tree, mate, for sure. He's saying you're ready. Yeah, I'm ready. Hey! Get him, Pat-Pat. Good shot. Three in one. Pat-Pat, where? There? Yeah. Bullseye. Yeah, look out, fruit bats. I've got mine. Barry's just using a heavy rock to crush it. That's a massive almond. Thanks, Barry. Mate, these are bigger than any that I've ever seen. Look at the size of that. That's awesome. Here, Barry, for you. Tripled the size of an almond. Good? Very, very good. I'd say five times better than any almond. Not quite as good as the navales we had earlier. The navales, the pick, and that's only the slight tier under, but better than anything from the shop, that's for sure. Very good. It's really good. Have an almond, mate. They're teaching the kids what you're meant to eat around here. That's the snack of the island. But where did that come from, eh? Didn't see that growing on the trees. The mainland. They learn quick. This big tree behind me here is a strangler fig, and all the vines that are coming down from it, see if I can find one here, all of those vines are used in traditional buildings. So whether that's for bow and arrows, the outriggers on canoes, or even roofs and housing. Very, very strong. It'd be awkward if it snapped. It's just started raining. Cheers, bro. Cheers. No, no luck yet with the protein in the rainforest, but I think that rain is going to dampen our chances, so we're going vegetarian. This big tree behind us, I don't know the English name, but in language they call it mouse, and it looks like it's related to a mango. You can eat it, you can cut it up raw and it's quite dry or bitter, but then it sweetens up when it's ripe. It's a little bit like a fish-size green fruit, but the leaves, supposedly, if you scrunch them up and you cook them with a fish that you suspect it might have ciguatera, supposedly it makes the fish fine to eat. So that decent-sized trout I got, they said that may be a little bit big to eat, but they will cook it with this leaf, and that makes it safe to eat. So we'll use a stick to try and take it out. A bit high. Bit to the right. Oi, the branch. I threw it hard enough. The tree's massive. It's throwing so much fruit, and I'd say it's because all these ducks and turkeys and geese are living around it, but there's the fruit. Barry's laughing at us going, don't eat that, it's poisonous. Poison? Stupid white boy. Kind of tastes like an apple or dry mango. Yeah? All right, if Pat-Pat eats it, I trust it. In Pat-Pat we trust. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble. The lads have just spotted a fruit bark right at the back of camp here. There's ripe fruit in the trees in front of us here. They're all standing on the edge as they come in to land right on sunset. Ready? There was two. Oi, got it. Got it, go, go, go, go, go. That was so close. Enumel our bird, too fast. Too quick for us, eh fellas? I mean the first shot was bang on, like it started it. It started it. Don't know what happened to that third shot though, Bredo, what happened to that one? I was going for another one in your skin. Like it went out to the north? It was starting to become a bit of a grim outlook for dinner, so we thought we'd try a bit of a different approach. Alvin, show us here. That's your weapon? That'll get him? There's one weapon, but I think the idea is we're gonna have to reload on the go, so a couple of weapons each, I reckon, per person. Five per person, per bat, per tree. Semi-automatic. That's a good one, pup pup. How many we need, more? That's right, we'll get a feed. We'll get dinner. We've got the old school, and we've got the new school. Sticks and shotgun. Bredo, what did you see? A pigeon. Yeah? Yeah, the old nut. Nowimba. Cream of the crop, mate. All right, we're ready. The sun is not far off setting, and what the bats do is they fly from the mainland over here to the island to feed at night. They're nocturnal, so any time in the next 30 minutes, they should start flying across the ocean and landing on this island to search for food. And we'll be waiting. Boys have all just spotted fruit bat up the top there. Haz gets one shot with the gun, and then we've got to get ready with the... Catch him. Get him, Pat-Pat. Nice one, mate. One for dinner. How's that, mate? Nice eating-sized one? Yeah, I've never hunted or eaten flying fox before, but I'm told that's a good one. Yeah, the boys are happy with it. Goes well with pigeon. Pat-Pat's just claimed that one. He's off the last we saw of the flying fox. You looking? I just spotted there's one up there, kind of in between the branches. See the fly? A little back. Yeah, yeah, you got him. You got him? Yep. We just got to wait for him to drop. Before seeing the streak up the tree. He's a good climber, streak. Yeah, way to go, streak. I reckon that was a direct hit, mate, but he seems to just be hanging on with his claws. That flying fox is actually just caught right up the top of that tree. The boys are throwing sticks to try and hit it, dislodge it, knock it down. Another bat for dinner? Yep. Time up to carry? Yep. Sweet, let's go. It's coming on to that prime time of the afternoon for the fruit bats. The setup is they will all come over and feed during the night time on the fruit on this island. So we're just kind of sitting on the foreshore and waiting to see if a whole heap of them come over. This is a lot harder with a stick than a shotgun. That was close though. Oh, so close, yeah? Yeah, nearly. Good throw, man. Mate, it seems to happen without warning, hey? The guys sort of spot something up in one of the trees, a bit of sign language, and then they're onto it. It's within a couple of seconds. It's almost hard to film because there's no time to waste. It's just two seconds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The boys are speaking some sort of sign language, hey? And one of them's going this way, one of them's going that way. They're communicating with eyebrows. Hopefully we pick one up on this coconut trees up here. Hopefully, that was very close. That was so close. The first shot startled it. Yeah, it was just like sitting there, just didn't know what the hell happened. It might have even like clipped its wing. It was so close. Oh, went the other way. It's right on dark and oh, it's flown the wrong way. A bit too smart for us this afternoon. That's one very lucky fruit bat. Just coming back to the village now. We're losing light. I'm really interested to see how we cook up the flying fox for dinner. First time for me. Good job, Alvin. Good stuff, bro. Tablecloth, check. There we go. So the girls have been working on something pretty special for us all afternoon. And this is going to be the grand reveal. Open him up, mate. I don't think anything can quite prepare you for that. There's all these little faces looking back at us. With very sharp teeth. One, two, three, a handful of heads. Mixed in with a lot of garlic and chili and onion and a few other fresh produce from the backyard. But it's pretty intimidating. That is very intimidating. Our first time eating fruit bat. As soon as this cools down, we'll let you know how it tastes. Dinner's on, Alvin. Pat, pat. Here's our rice. And what's the best way to eat it? Just pick it up and get into it? Yeah, it's like quite succulent. It's been cooking for hours. Let me know what you think of it as, Roger. Thank you, Mr. Flying Fox. Wow. How is it? That's really tender. It's good, isn't it? Really good. Surprisingly soft and tender. It's like an Indian runner duck. Yeah, it does taste like a duck. Tastes like duck. Yum. Boys, we've got to go get some more. Ducks of the jungle. I'm really surprised with that one. Yeah, me too. Hey, thanks so much, fellas, for showing us how to catch them. Flying Fox, appreciate it. Thanks, Barry. You eat some flying fox sometimes? Never. First time. First time? First time, this one. Have you eaten your whole life since you were like Papa? Whole life, yeah. In Australia, cannot eat. Government say. No, I don't. Yeah, no love. No love. Just like most things in Australia. Most things fun and tasty. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. That's absolutely incredible. Cameras are going off. Thanks for watching. We'll see you in the next one.