Ever drink the juice from an impala’s stomach? How about using a cobra’s rib to make a fishing hook?

Three U.S. soldiers recently learned those survival skills — and many more — during a three-week course in the South African bush.

Sgt. John Otfinoski, Master Sgt. Bob Seifert and Sgt. 1st Class Nickolas Maney learned to live off the land when they trained with Zulus who serve with South African special operations forces. Those lessons included learning to drink the juice from an impala’s stomach and to find water by listening for hippopotamus sounds, as well as learning what plants and insects are safe to eat.

"It was probably some of the best training that I received in my eight years in the military," said Otfinoski of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment out of Vicenza, Italy.

During the training, Otfinoski and the other NCOs learned the lay of the land from Zulus. The Americans learned to make rope by chopping up trees and to use that rope for fishing and other purposes.

They also learned to navigate by using the stars rather than a GPS or compass, and how to track people in the terrain. They were given only a rifle, a backpack, some water and a canteen for the three weeks.

"They were proficient; just unbelievable," Otfinoski, 27, of Middleton, Conn., said of the Zulus.

Otfinoski, a veteran of three tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, said he believes the training could come in handy downrange, and he plans to share it with soldiers in his unit.

"The main thing I would say is it kind of peels you away from all the technology we rely on and it gets you back to basics," said Seifert, who serves with Africa Command’s Special Forces. "We haven’t done a lot of things on the continent, so we have a limited experience there. I think we can learn a lot from those (African nations’) forces," Seifert said.

Seifert described the South African training as similar to some of the survival training he got in the States, but in a completely different environment.

"You improvise everything," he said.

Improvising meant making a fishing hook out of a cobra rib, and making shelters out of what was around the soldiers, Seifert said.

Command Sgt. Maj. of the U.S. Army Africa Earl Rice said the training with South Africa is just one example of how Americans have learned from their counterparts on the continent. Another example is that U.S. military nurses and doctors in Kenya learned about diseases they haven’t been exposed to or have had limited exposure to, he added.

"It is not about fighting wars in Africa; we are not looking for that," Rice said. "We are looking to partner with Africa. ... Anything we can do to provide peace and security in a region like that to prevent conflict, the better off we are going to be."

Maney, the third soldier who took part in the training, is assigned to the 6th Ranger Training Battalion, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.