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Two contestants were disqualified from a US reality TV show after one of them hunted, killed and ate a protected bird in New Zealand.
Spencer “Corry” Jones, a contestant on the American-produced show Race to Survive: New Zealand, was disqualified along with his teammate Oliver Dev for killing a weka bird, an iconic indigenous species which is extinct across large parts of the country.
The reality show, whose 10th and final episode aired on Monday, saw nine teams of two released into the wilderness, where they competed in a series of long-distance races over several weeks for a grand prize of $500,000 (£387,322). The contestants are supposed to hunt and forage for their food during the competition.
Producers were shown on camera informing Jones and Dev that they were being disqualified at the end of episode eight, and Dev is seen admitting they ate “one of the creatures running around camp that we were not allowed to eat”, though the show did not provide further details at that time.
Officials have now confirmed that the animal they killed was a weka. Native to New Zealand, the species is fully protected by the country’s conservation laws.
Jones appears to have been aware the bird was protected at the time he hunted and killed it, according to local media and footage from the show, during which he is seen apologising and saying he made a “foolish” mistake.
“There’s this very deep need to eat, and there was this idea of ‘just break the rule’,” he says in episode four. “Yeah, I knew it was breaking a rule, but that’s not important when you’re hungry.
“What I did disrespected New Zealand, and I’m sorry,” he says.
Dev said the duo “did have strategies in place for the racing, but we didn’t prepare for hunger”.
Jones and Dev were both disqualified in the eighth episode of the series just moments after they crossed the finish line. The rule violation happened earlier in the competition and was not shown on camera.
The contestants said they were aware of what was coming.
“We had been approached [by a producer] in the third survival camp that there’s been this accusation made,” Jones told Reality Tea earlier this month. “I owned it.”
New Zealand’s Department of Conservation said they were alerted by a representative of the production company – US-based Original Productions – shortly after the incident occurred.
Officials conducted an investigation and issued the company and the participants with written warnings, citing an “unusual group dynamic situation” such as fatigue and significant hunger among the cast members.
“Nonetheless, killing and eating a native protected species in this matter is unacceptable and the company is ‘on notice’ about the need for its programme participants to adhere to conservation legislation,” Dylan Swain, team lead of investigations for the department, said in a statement to 1News.
