An adventurer competing on a survivalist reality TV show said he was driven to eat a protected bird by a “very deep need to eat”.
Spencer “Corry” Jones and team-mate Oliver Dev were disqualified from the Race to Survive show in New Zealand after killing and eating a weka, or Maori hen – a flightless and plump brown bird about the size of chicken.
The white water river guides from the US were racing other teams around checkpoints on New Zealand’s South Island with only what they could carry.
In footage from the show, Mr Jones apologised for disrespecting the country by eating the bird.
“It was shortsighted, it was foolish,” he said, before adding that “a very deep need to eat” was behind the breaking of the rules.
“We did have strategies in place for the racing but we didn’t prepare for hunger,” he explained, adding that the “mindset of starvation mode” took over, slowing down their thoughts and cognition.