Bear Grylls Could Face Fine for Killing and Boiling Frog While Filming with Derek Hough: Reports
Bear Grylls could reportedly face a fine after he killed, gutted and boiled a frog in a Bulgarian protected national park two years ago.
In 2017, Grylls, 44, ventured to Bulgaria with Dancing with the Stars alum Derek Hough, who joined for an episode of the British adventurer’s reality series, Running Wild with Bear Grylls.
While in Bulgaria, the duo trekked the Rila mountains, where they killed the wild frog for dinner. The “Rila Mountains are a significant nature preservation site that is a protected territory with 4 reserves (Central Rila Reserve, Parangalitsa Reserve, Skakavitsa Reserve and Ibar Reserve) within its territory and the Rila Monastery Nature Park,” according to Hiking Guide Bulgaria.
Now, Grylls and Derek, 33, as well as the production companies, could reportedly face fines for what took place in the park while filming.
“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,” Bulgaria’s environment ministry said in a statement obtained by Agence France-Presse.
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Department officials are contemplating fining the duo between €250 and €2,500, according to CNN, and the production companies — Bear Grylls Ventures and Electus — could be fined between €500 and €5,000.
“We are confident that we had the necessary guidance and permits to film Bear Grylls: Running Wild in Bulgaria,” a spokesperson for Electus told PEOPLE in a comment on Friday.
A rep for Hough had no comment. A rep for Grylls’ and his production company did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
PEOPLE is out to Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and Water for comment, as well as National Geographic.
Derek is one of many celebrities that have joined Grylls on his outdoor adventures abroad, including Courteney Cox, Kate Hudson, Kate Winslet, Channing Tatum, Zac Efron and President Barack Obama.
Before Derek appeared on the show, his youngest sister and fellow DWTS alum Julianne Hough went trekking with Grylls on the African Savanna, where she consumed animal feces and skirt snakes.
“There are not many girls I know who would squeeze the juice from elephant dung and drink it,” Grylls told PEOPLE of Julianne in July 2016.
“Yum!” Julianne joked. “The scariest and hardest part was probably eating and drinking the elephant dung and the caterpillars, not to mention the snake that was right next to us as we were belly crawling next to it. There were a few moments … actually all of the moments were not scary, but thrilling. But, for me at least, it was like, the more I’m committed, the less afraid I’m going to be, so I might as well just go for it.”
As for Grylls, he knows the drill with celebrities.
“The pressure is on me to keep them alive,” he said. “But we always have fun. The stars often get quite nervous beforehand, but in the end there’s always a real sense of pride and confidence that they’ve earned. I always promise, I’ll deliver you alive, but you will have a few scrapes. But the girls often really embrace that.”
