POCATELLO — Jeff Zausch first put his wilderness survival skills to the test as a 12-year-old, when he chose to spend a night in the forest near Pocatello Creek Road in the midst of a blizzard.

“Ever since I was 12 I’ve kept pushing the limits further and further,” Zausch said.

The 33-year-old Pocatello man has become world famous for his ability to endure the harshest conditions imaginable — setting out on his adventures without food or clothing during televised challenges. Zausch will be among the survivalist all stars who will compete in Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid XL Legends” season, which debuts at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 25.

It will be the first of 10 two-hour programs airing on Sundays, featuring a dozen of the show’s legends, who were turned loose for a 60-day challenge in the swamps of Louisiana. They were prohibited from wearing clothing and bringing supplies, forcing them to live off the land.

According to Discovery Channel policy, Zausch isn’t allowed to divulge details about the experience before the show airs.

If he makes it to this season’s final episode, he’ll have logged 195 days in the wild as a “Naked & Afraid” contestant during five of the show’s 14 seasons — which would be the record.

“There’s a pretty good chance I’ll come out of this looking pretty good,” Zausch hinted.

Zausch is a graduate of Century High School and Idaho State University who worked in geographic information systems with ISU’s Idaho Museum of Natural History before making survival his full-time job. In addition to competing several times on “Naked & Afraid,” he’s also the cohost of the Discovery show “Dual Survival,” which features experts demonstrating their wilderness survival skills in challenging environments.

Zausch has fans throughout the world and 1.5 million people follow him on Facebook. He frequently hears from people who thank him for inspiring them to get into the outdoors.

“I enjoy ‘Naked & Afraid’ because it’s the pinnacle of primitive survival,” Zausch said. “There really is no other challenge like it in the world where you throw yourself out into an environment you may never have seen before and you strip away everything you have right down to your clothes. There’s no feeling quite like it to being vulnerable to Mother Nature.”

He’s also earned his fair share of corporate sponsors. At the moment, he’s in Iceland photographing an erupting volcano for a major sponsor, Fujifilm.

Zausch credits his Idaho upbringing for helping him become the face of Discovery Channel survival shows. He comes from a family of hunters and outdoorsmen. Immediately out of high school, he spent a couple of weeks alone in Idaho’s remote Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The only food he packed was a big jar of peanut butter; he survived mostly by fishing and hunting rattle snakes and grouse.

Zausch was also a mountaineering enthusiast, summiting several tall peaks.

Though Zausch loves man-against-nature challenges, he admits he derives no particular enjoyment from being hungry and uncomfortable. The exception is completing a successful hunt.

“I don’t enjoy it while I’m doing it except for the times I’m able to secure a big kill,” Zausch said. “The most difficult thing is being hungry. I’m naturally a big eater. I’m known for screaming and yelling when I get a big kill.”

Zausch has also earned a reputation on “Naked & Afraid” as a no-nonsense guy who is extremely selective in making partnerships with other contestants. Partnering with other contestants is a proven strategy to succeed on the show, and Zausch has often kicked people out of his group or denied them a meal for not carrying their weight.

Because the new season exclusively features top show veterans, Zausch had previously made successful partnerships with many of this season’s costars during past challenges, including with EJ Snyder, who is his cohost on “Dual Survival.” Zausch said it was a given that he would partner with Snyder in the swamp.

As the only “Naked & Afraid” contestant to ever complete a 60-day challenge, Zausch said he went into the Louisiana swamp believing he had an advantage. The show was filmed between October and December of 2020.

Of all the challenges he’s done, he said the time spent in Louisiana was by far the most difficult he’s experienced in the wild. He knew heading into the challenge that he’d have to kill an alligator and make an outfit simply to clothe himself.

Early during the challenge, the group faced a hurricane. By December they had to brave temperatures that dropped to 28 degrees while walking through muck.

“It’s one of those things you would not think would be possible for people to do without clothing,” Zausch said.