André-François Bourbeau

Andre-Francois Bourbeau is a noted Canadian survival expert and professor emeritus at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Bourbeau co-founded the survival skills Outdoor Adventure Program (also called the Outdoors Pursuits and Adventure Tourism Program ) at that university and taught there for more than 30 years. The students at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi have affectionately given Bourbeau the nickname "Doc Survival" due to his skills.

Biography Bourbeau was born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, and raised in the 200-person village of Spragge Georges Bourbeau founded a meal-services business called G.B. Catering in 1969 (still in business today), catering initially to Camp Shalom, a Jewish children's summer camp.

Bourbeau then took a faculty position at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, initially intending only to stay for a short time, but he "fell in love with the rugged Saguenay region, with its 15 whitewater rivers nearby and ample opportunities for living in the bush".

Bourbeau and Bilodeau both retired in 2011. Bourbeau said that Lavoie survived because he made "good decisions" and that sacrificing his pet was one of those decisions.

Guinness World Record

Bourbeau is noted for holding the Guinness World Record for longest voluntary wilderness survival of 31 days, a record he held for nearly 30 years.

Books

Bourbeau is the author of four books on wilderness survival.

Bourbeau is the also the author of Wilderness Secrets Revealed: Adventures of a Survivor, a wilderness survival book published in 2013 by Dundurn Group and in September 2013 about his canoe research.

Profiles of Nature episode Bourbeau's survival teachings and his successful world record attempt are the subject of an episode of Profiles of Nature, a Canadian wildlife documentary television series. This episode won a bronze medal at the Houston International Film Festival.