Manu Toigo is a survivalist from

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia, who was featured on

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

's TV show ''

Naked and Afraid ''Naked and Afraid'' is an American reality series that airs on the Discovery Channel. Each episode chronicles the lives of two survivalists who meet for the first time naked and are given the task of surviving a stay in the wilderness for 21 d ...

'' and ''

Curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human ...

''.

Early life

Manu was born in Queensland and lived on her parents' farm. At the age of 17 she joined the Infantry Reserve Unit in the Australian Army and served for eight years until she sustained an injury. In 1998 Manu moved to Seattle, where she graduated college.

TV appearances

Discovery's ''Curiosity''

Manu appeared on the Discovery Channel series ''

'' during the "I, Caveman" episode which aired on October 2, 2011.

''Naked and Afraid''

In 2013, Manu was featured on the second season of Discovery Channel's ''

'' for a special double episode titled "Double Jeopardy" which took place in the Panama Jungle. The episode premiered on December 10, 2013, and attracted 2.4 million viewers. Manu made it through the 21 day challenge but contracted

dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...

from a

mosquito bite Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

and went to the hospital three days after she finished the challenge. Manu said that she got to the hospital just in time — any later and she might have died. Manu spent a total of two weeks in the hospital and several months in physical therapy. She finished with a Primitive Survival Rating (PSR) of 8.0. In 2019, Manu returned to the Naked Afraid series as she was cast with 14 other survivalists for

Naked and Afraid XL ''Naked and Afraid XL'' is an American reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel in 2015. This series is a spin-off of ''Naked and Afraid''. A group of people are given the task of surviving in the wilderness for an extend ...

. For this challenge the survivalists had to survive 40 days in the

Palawan Palawan (), officially the Province of Palawan ( cyo, Probinsya i'ang Palawan; tl, Lalawigan ng Palawan), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in ...

in the Philippines. Manu was partnered in a group with Rylie Parlett and Christina McQueen, but tapped out on Day 7 due to her brother receiving treatments for jaw cancer.

''Mygrations''

Manu appeared on National Geographic's show ''Mygrations'' in 2016. The National Geographic team originally contacted Manu via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and asked her if she would like to be featured in the show. Manu said she enjoyed being on the show, but commented on the show's large production, which took much of the wilderness experience away from her.

Other projects

Manu currently runs a wilderness camp in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

to educate youth about the environment called camp Manu. She also runs an organization called ''Walk-about'' that gives survival tips and tells people how to respect the environment. The organization is partnered with Leave No Trace and Women Owned. On November 9, 2019, Manu released a song titled "Plastic Solution" with Two Roads Plastic Project. 100% of the song profits will go to efforts in fighting against

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toigo, Manu Living people 1969 births Survivalists