TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 While competing for a $1 million prize fund in the Panamanian jungle, Tampa man Sean Jacobs made a disgusting discovery:<\/p>\n
Roasted cockroach tastes just like shrimp-fried rice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a little black chicken nugget,\u201d Jacobs said, noting this wasn\u2019t the only weird food he consumed in the name of survival. \u201cWe\u2019re boiling hermit crabs, and we\u2019re drinking the broth, and then we\u2019re burning off ocean water to get the salt. \u2026 None of it was things that you see on a\u00a0downtown Tampa menu<\/a>, I\u2019ll say that.\u201d<\/p>\n In the new season of Netflix\u2019s \u201cOutlast: The Jungle,\u201d Jacobs is one of 16 strangers taking part in a \u201chigh-stakes survival experiment.\u201d The reality TV competition, which boasts actor Jason Bateman as one of its executive producers, returned with a new location on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The show requires contestants to split into teams and work together to survive. The group that lasts the longest gets to share the prize money.<\/p>\n While the first two seasons of \u201cOutlast\u201d took place in Alaska, \u201cOutlast: The Jungle\u201d sends hopefuls deep into the tropical forests of Panama. It features several Floridians, including Myakka City marketing professional Morgan Colburn and former Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Wes Saunders, who now lives in Miami Beach.<\/p>\n Joining Jacobs from the Tampa Bay region: Ruskin\u2019s Pharaoh Gayles, a wildlife educator and champion\u00a0alligator<\/a>\u00a0wrestler.<\/p>\n In it for the gators<\/p>\n Gayles, 35, is based in Ruskin. As the founder of\u00a0Pharaoh\u2019s Wildlife Kingdom<\/a>, he travels around Florida to bring educational animal demonstrations to schools, birthday parties, festivals, fairs and private events.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since I was a little kid, if we ever went on a trip, I was always the one leaving the family and getting lost in the woods, trying to come back with a snake or a turtle or a lizard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Gayles spent about six years as a wildlife manager in the Miccosukee Indian Village in the\u00a0Everglades<\/a>. He also studied alligator wrestling, a \u201cbare-handed capture technique developed by the Miccosukee and Seminole Indians of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Gayles currently has a quarter-acre of land in Ruskin. The prize money from \u201cOutlast\u201d could help him achieve his dream of opening an alligator rescue and educational zoo.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He hopes viewers at home can get inspired to spend time outdoors, whatever that looks like for them.<\/p>\n \u201cBushcraft skills are very important,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that people can see others get connected with nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Channeling his inner child<\/p>\n Sean Jacobs, 39, co-founded\u00a0Jacobs Fitness<\/a>\u00a0in Tampa. He also created the\u00a0Ubuntu Society<\/a>, a nonprofit that works on volunteer projects with existing grassroots groups in East Africa.<\/p>\n Jacobs said the functional fitness business he created with his wife prepared him for \u201cOutlast\u201d in multiple ways.<\/p>\n \u201cMy gym just doesn\u2019t have great AC. So right now I\u2019m sitting here talking, it\u2019s 85 in the building, and I\u2019m not sweating,\u201d he said. \u201cThe environment was so similar to Florida that I felt like I was kind of at home.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs, who holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology, said working with a diverse range of clients helped him to prepare for the social and strategic aspects of the show.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m kind of a chameleon when it comes to that, as far as building relationships, because not everybody that comes in the gym or is a client virtually \u2026 has the same personality as me,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m not the most survival-skilled. I may be more of a jack-of-all-trades in that aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs had no idea where he would be sent for the competition. With only about a month\u2019s notice before his departure, he packed on 20 pounds.<\/p>\n \u201cI was changing training. I was pounding food,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m already carrying a lot of muscle mass. I had to carry more fat than usual, because I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to be able to find out there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Once he got to the jungle, much of his energy was spent on finding and boiling water, foraging for edible plants, making a shelter and snacking on sour cane plants that reminded him of Warheads.<\/p>\n \u201cLiterally everything I ate on the island was something I had never eaten before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Above all, Jacobs was committed to having fun.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2018m basically someone who refuses to do anything if I\u2019m not having a good time,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m almost 40, but I have the enthusiasm of my 12-year-old self, and I hope I never lose that.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch \u2018Outlast: The Jungle\u2019<\/p>\n The first six episodes of \u201cOutlast: The Jungle\u201d premiered on Wednesday, with two others following on June 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabrielle CaliseTampa Bay Times (TNS) TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 While competing for a $1 million prize fund in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136,106,20047],"class_list":["post-303028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-tv-and-streaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}