Los Angeles, Dec 21 (IANS): Reality TV survival expert Bear Grylls who shot to fame after 'Man vs Wild' said that he killed "way too many animals" in his early days.

Speaking to BBC 4, Grylls expressed his regret by proclaiming that he should not kill anymore animals and only eat dead animals instead, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I think in terms of survival and food, definitely in the early days we were killing way too many snakes and stuff like that in the name of survival. I've moved so far away from that nowadays. It's always about finding carcasses, bugs and grubs. If you look at great survivors historically they were always the foragers

"You go after the big game and you take too much risk and you burn too much energy."

Grylls has taken inspiration from the surge in veganism and his experience with vegan stars on his shows who have altered his thinking towards eating meat

"I have taken many, many stars who are vegan and vegetarian into the wild. It has been a wonderful adventure and I am always super respectful of that."

The former 21 SAS reservist, who was part of the UK Special Forces in the late 90s, served as a trooper, survival instructor and patrol medic.

Throughout his TV career which includes shows like 'You vs Wild' and 'The Island', the adventurer has been known to tuck in to all sorts including frogs, bugs and reptiles.

The climate sceptic who recently changed his mind on the issue, spoke previously to 'Good Morning Britain' about his experience of making Prince George eat a bug.

Talking to Susana Reid who compared it to the time Bear made former US President Barack Obama munch on a half-eaten salmon on his show 'Running With Bear Grylls', he said: "Well I didn't really mean to, I mean we were doing something for Prince William's Kings Cup event, we were down there and the royal family were there.

"And it was actually the Duchess of Cambridge's mother said 'Would you come and just say hi to Prince George, he's a big fan of your Netflix adventure interactive show.

"And so we were chatting, and he was down here, and just as we were chatting a stream of ants went across his feet, and him and me looked at them, he looked at me with those amazed wide eyes, and I said, 'Come on we've got to eat one'.

"And he said, 'Oh really?' and we ate, and it was a privilege to give the future king his first ant, and his eyes lit up as they do with anyone when they're out in the wild and they face a few fears and they overcome them, so good for him. What a little hero."