Daily Times

Environment officials in Bulgaria said Thursday they were 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 Bulgaria’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.

The series’ production company faces a possible fine of between 500-5,000 euros ($560-$5,660) while Grylls and Hough could receive fines of between 250-2,500 euros.

The Rila national park in southwestern 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 on the Dancing With The Stars series.

Published in Daily Times, February 23^rd 2019.