Environment officials in Bulgaria are considering fining British adventurer Bear Grylls over an episode of his Running Wild series, in which he killed a frog and boiled it on a camping stove.
In the episode filmed in the country’s Rila mountains in 2017, Grylls and US Latin and ballroom dancer Derek Hough were shown killing, gutting and cooking the frog before swimming across a lake.
“It is evident from the film material that during the shooting there were breaches to the regulations and rules of conduct in protected areas: entering and swimming in the water basin of the Karakashevo lake, lighting a fire, and catching and killing an animal,” the environment ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The series’ production company faces a possible fine of between 500-5,000 euros, while Grylls and Hough could receive fines of between 250-2,500 euros each.
The Rila national park in south western Bulgaria is the country’s largest.
It is a protected area and the ministry said the crew had been briefed on what they could and could not do during the shoot.
The ministry added that it would also investigate possible failings on the part of park authority officials who accompanied the crew.
Grylls served with the British armed forces’ elite Special Air Service (SAS) before finding fame with a string of adventure TV shows in the UK and the US, in which he demonstrates survival techniques in inhospitable climates.
In 2015, then-US President Barack Obama joined him for an adventure in Alaska. The pair ate a half-eaten salmon which had been stashed away by a bear.
Hough is best known for his work as a professional dancer in the Dancing With The Stars series.