Suspect's survival claims don't impress consultant

Tom Brown does not think much of Eric Rudolph’s skills as an outdoorsman. Rudolph, who faces federal charges as a serial bomber responsible for two deaths and 150 injuries, told jailers after his arrest here Saturday that he sometimes ate raw lizards during his five years as a fugitive. ”Why would he eat them raw?” asked Brown, an expert on outdoor survival. ”You never eat raw meat. There could be parasites. Especially when you can build hidden, smokeless fires.” Brown runs the Tracker School in Asbury, N.J., which teaches what he calls ”primitive, purist survival.” He was a consultant on the recent movie The Hunted, which stars Tommy Lee Jones as a tracker pursuing a fugitive in the woods played by Benicio del Toro. Brown said Rudolph’s description of how he stayed alive in the rugged woods would not impress true survivalists, but he said he doesn’t doubt that Rudolph could have survived the way he claims. Full Story