A U.S. reality show has come under pressure from the New Zealand government after one of its contestants ate an endangered bird.
Spencer ‘Corry’ Jones was given a warning after he killed a weka bird while participating in Race to Survive: New Zealand.
The weka is extinct across much of New Zealand and has an adult population of around 4,150. A flightless bird which has a curious and feisty nature, weka’s are known to pilfer small objects and take them to nearby caves to investigate, according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
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Race to Survive pits nine teams of two contestants against each other as they race across 150 miles of New Zealand’s punishing terrain in 40 days. Contestants have to forage for their own food while traveling through caves, across rivers and over mountains.
Previous contestants have eaten hedgehogs and eels but are warned against killing birds.
The maximum punishment for killing a weka is $100,000 or a two year prison sentence. After Original Productions, the company behind Race to Survive, alerted the New Zealand government an investigation was opened. Jones, an American white water rafting guide, and Original Productions were only given a warning due to the “unusual dynamic situation,” a reference to the fact that the contestant was experiencing hunger and fatigue.
While he got away with a slap on the wrist, Jones will now lose out on the opportunity to win half a million dollars in prize money.
Jones has apologized for disrespecting New Zealand and said he “didn’t prepare for the hunger.” He is not the first survival show contestant to come under flak for consuming endangered species.
Last year contestants on British reality TV show I’m a Celeb Get Me Out of Here were criticized for eating endangered animals in South Africa. Celebrities including U.S. supermodel Janice Dickinson ate the tongue of a nguni cow which was listed in 2017 by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization as being endangered.
