The I’m A Celeb critters who deserve their own crown, from crunchy lunch to nose cockroach

The animals, critters, and insects on I’m A Celeb are undoubtedly stars in their own right, sending contestants screaming into the jungle, gagging on their dinner, and using just about every expletive available.

But that stardom is not without its controversy and there are arguments year after year that the animals are being exploited for our entertainment. Animal welfare charity PETA certainly thinks so.

“For too long, you have been complicit in cruelty to animals on the show, and it must end,” wrote PETA Vice President Elisa Allen. “The longer you associate yourselves with this show, the more you send the message to viewers that you think animal abuse is not only acceptable but also entertaining.”

While I can’t kidnap all of the animals from the Australian jungle, I can give them the notoriety they deserve.

1. Cockroaches can survive a nuclear blast, just not Fatima Whitbread

In 2011, Olympic powerhouse Fatima Whitbread came in third place on I’m A Celeb just behind Mark Wright and winner Dougie Poynter. Before that though, she had perhaps the most intense creature interaction to date.

During a bushtucker trial, Fatima had a giant plastic ball clamped around her head as insects were poured through the top. That was until the fateful words “It’s up me nose” were spoken. After the trial’s conclusion, Fatima immediately tried to blow the cockroach out of her nose with little success.

Even after the medic got involved, Fatima said she could feel the insect rummaging around in there. It made for brilliant TV but was not a great day for the cockroach. Though they can survive anything by all accounts, it did not survive Fatima Whitbread’s nose.

2. RIP all of the insects that became lunch

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Another regular occurrence on I’m A Celeb is the challenge that sees unsuspecting contestants chow down on creepy crawlies ranging from spiders to stick insects.

In 2016, actor Adam Thomas had to pick between a water spider and a giant burrowing cockroach, and though he easily picked the spider to hold in his mouth, the subsequent scenes were difficult to watch. The legs were sticking out and Adam’s face was a picture, but imagine that poor spider returning home to his wife and kids after being embarrassed on national TV.

Coronation Street’s Helen took part in I’m A Celeb in 2012 and was unlucky enough to be served a dead stick insect during one of her bushtucker trials. She stomached it like a champion, but the close-ups of her ripping it into small pieces seemed unnecessary.

Other animals to be either held in contestants’ mouths or straight-up eaten include grasshoppers, yabbies, beach worms, and fish eyes.

3. Gino D’Acampo was investigated for animal cruelty

2009 was a controversial year for I’m A Celeb as series winner Gino D’Acampo and campmate Stuart Manning captured, killed, and cooked a native rat.

“I saw one of these rats running around. I got a knife, I got its throat, I picked it up,” Gino said in the Bush Telegraph.

Not only did the celebs face the nation’s collective rage, but RSPCA Chief Inspector David Oshannessy fined ITV £1,903 as both the show and the rat killers narrowly escaped formal charges.

“The animal was killed for a TV show, that’s not appropriate. The raw footage indicates that, from the first attempt, it took about 90 seconds before it actually died,” he said at the time. “The legislation says that an animal can be killed for human consumption provided it does not cause unnecessary suffering. Had it been killed and it was over and done with, we might not be having this conversation.”

4. Danny Jones had a giant snake in his pants

This one shouldn’t require you to dig through your memory banks as it happened earlier this week. During his first-ever trial, new cast member Danny Jones got an unexpected visitor as he was crammed in the show’s signature coffin-like box.

Soon enough, Danny felt a commotion in his pants and shouted “I’ve got a snake up my shorts” as Ant and Dec were reduced to laughter. No judgement, the snake must have been a true fan of his McFly era.

5. The insects that are fans of ear exams

Fatima’s nose is not the only popular meeting spot for Australia’s critters as many have gotten stuck in various celebrity ears over the years. In 2023, Food critic Grace Dent illustrated why medics are always on hand when she found that an insect had crawled into her ear.

“There’s one in my ear!” she shouted. “There’s one in my ear! That’s not nice, I can hear it.”

Before being crowned the queen of the jungle in 2023, footballer Jill Scott conquered her fears in the Scareground’s Lucky Dip trial. She too got an ear exam.

“There’s a cockroach right in my ear! I’ve just got a cockroach stuck in my ear!” she shouted. “Come to the jungle, they said. It’ll be fun…”

“It’s now in my brain… Did you get it?” she questioned as the medic removed it from her ear canal. Dec soon said that it was bigger than the cockroach in Fatima’s nose. Quite the accomplishment.

In fact, the trend became so regular that the Leeds Audiology Clinic issued a helpful guide for what to do when an insect invades your ear.

6. You can’t silence the crocodiles 

While most of the animals included in I’m A Celeb could fit in the palm of your hand, small-ish crocodiles have become a staple in the show. Over the years, many have wondered how they manage to keep the toothy reptiles from chomping their castmates.

In reality, producers have enacted a number of safety measures, but most of them come down to fixing the reptile’s mouth shut so it can’t open for the duration of the trial.

If rumours are to be believed, the crocodiles have banded together for a tell-all memoir. You can’t silence them, ITV.

7. Snakes are a girl’s best friend (Not you, Matt Hancock)

A fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias, which is exactly why the I’m A Celeb bosses like to chuck them into tanks, holes, and boxes with their show’s stars. Ferne McCann’s iconic Panic Pit bushtucker trial jumps instantly to mind.

There have been very few actual bites during the show’s long reign, but Emily Atack’s hand was nipped during her Viper Pit trial in 2018.

There was, however, an incredibly close call in 2023 when cryptophis nigrescens, a highly venomous snake that causes pain for days, slithered over to Sam Thompson.

“Luckily the rangers spotted it and were quick to act and swiftly removed the snake, without even waking Sam or the other celebrities,” a source told The Mirror.

Honourable mention: The dragon that taunted Joey Essex

I’ve waited all year to tweet this clip of Joey Essex seeing a dragon on the bridge #ImACeleb
pic.twitter.com/mpSnk4KXth

— Lewis 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@lewisa95) November 17, 2024

You can’t talk about I’m A Celeb’s animal stars without paying tribute to the rare species of dragon that Joey Essex spotted on the bridge – eat your heart out David Attenborough.

The incredibly quotable moment came in 2013 as Joey walked across the bridge back to camp. He was literally stopped in his tracks to say “There’s a dragon on the bridge” when he saw the mythical beast at the end. In reality, it was a monitor lizard.

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