Animal handler on I’m a Celebrity: ‘As far as danger goes, we would never let it get too bad, only a little bit of blood’

ONE of the animal handlers from I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! reveals the gruesome secrets to managing all the show’s creepy crawlies, reptiles and furry friends.

IT IS like a zoo behind the scenes on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

A team of animal handlers work around the clock looking after the thousands of critters, creepy crawlies, reptiles and furry friends that keep celebrities on their toes on the South African jungle reality show.

“We’ve got pretty much anything that is hairy and scary,” animal wrangler Marc Murray told News Corp.

“Obviously everything lives together in shipping containers so when you have a lot of insects and critters and all of that together, your husbandry has to be top notch. Being very far away from home, it takes a lot of work to keep them all fed and well looked after to have them ready for the show.”

Murray and his team breed insects including Madagascar hissing cockroach and Emperor Scorpions that are used in trials live but also in some of the Tucker Chewsday eating challenges.

There are a lot of creepy crawlies involved in this show... Picture: Supplied

There are also several different types of snakes, from red tailed boa constrictors to blood pythons, corn snakes and rat snakes, as well as a number of Nile Crocodile.

Bearded dragons, hedgehogs, frogs, crabs, eels and fish are some of the other animals you’ll see in what producers refer to as the ‘Critter House’ based a few kilometres away from where they shoot the Channel Ten reality show near Kruger National Park in South Africa.

And then there are the furry animals like the hairless and hairy rats.

Other animals are brought in at different times throughout the series. In previous seasons producers have featured the likes of baboons, ostrich, lion cubs, cheetah, elephant, zebra and a hippopotamus in trials.

I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! animal wrangler, Marc Murray. Picture: Jonathan Moran

“Everything has got different requirements, the snakes need heat, the cockroaches need humidity and the meal worms need cooler climate. We do our best to keep them all happy.”

The utmost precautions are taken to ensure the animals, and celebrities, are not harmed in any of the challenges.
Bernard Tomic was bitten more than five times in his first challenge this season and on a previous series cricketing great Shane Warne copped a bite to the face by a snake.

“We’ve got spiders and snakes and scorpions and they all bite,” Murray said, joking: “As far as danger goes, we would never let it get too bad, only a little bit of blood.”

* The journalist is in South Africa covering I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! as a guest of Channel Ten.

Originally published as Animal handler on I’m a Celebrity: ‘As far as danger goes, we would never let it get too bad, only a little bit of blood’