The Crocodile Hunter
Steve Irwin passed away on September 6, 2006 after being struck in the chest by a stingray barb while filming a television program on the Great Barrier Reef off far north Queensland. He was 44 years old. This article, by Karen Larke, appeared in the April 2000 issue of Signs of the Times.
There is an age-old saying, “Love me; love my dog,” but for a woman with her eye on Queensland naturalist Steve Irwin, it was more a matter of love me, love my dog—and my crocodile, my snakes, my lizards and my birds—my entire menagerie. Luckily for Steve, he did meet such a girl.
Steve and Terri Irwin are a husband-and-wife team who, for most, need no introduction. As stars of the internationally famed “Crocodile Hunter” series of television shows (seen on Channel 9 in Australia), they are known worldwide. But it is their unfailing love of all creatures great and small, beautiful and downright ugly that endears them to their fans. Their exciting work is based in their Australia Zoo, Beerwah, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Steve was raised to love all forms of fauna. His father, Bob, a highly regarded herpetologist (a specialist in reptiles and amphibians), and mother Lyn, instilled in him an admiration and respect for all animals, but especially for the dangerous ones.
Steve recalls receiving many “a clip over the ear” for collecting poisonous snakes at inappropriate times. He once collected seven red-bellied black snakes at a schoolboys’ cricket match which, to the bus driver’s terror, he carted home in his lunch esky. Despite his own love of reptiles, his father was furious.
Steve recalls he wasn’t so scared of dying from snakebite, but he was mortified at the thought of losing his father’s pride in him. His father was the person he most respected and admired. Steve credits his father’s strict training for making him the person he became.
Steve’s wife, Terri, likewise, has had a lifelong love of animals. She was raised in Oregon, USA, where her father had a trucking business. He would often bring home injured animals he’d found along the roadside on his travels. Terri learned it was a noble thing to help injured animals.
She developed a genuine animal rehab centre, “Cougar Country,” where she nursed sick and injured wild animals back to health and eventual release into the wild.
So Terri and Steve were a natural partnership. When Terri first met Steve after her arrival in Australia in 1991, it was love at first sight. One of their first “dates” was an assignment to catch crocodiles. That’s when Terri realised what she was in for if she was to hang out with Steve. She also learned the dangers of working in the field of crocodile preservation.
During the assignment she and Steve’s dog, Sui, were set upon by bush pigs. Terri escaped unharmed, but Sui was seriously injured. However, while it wasn’t long before Sui recovered and was out chasing pigs again, Terri was smitten for life.
After an eight-month-long courtship, Terri and Steve married in June 1992. Terri had mixed feelings about such a big move in her life. She had her family business to consider and, of course, there was Cougar Country back home.
But, she recalls, when they were proclaimed “man and wife,” a calm settled over her and she knew they were to be soul mates for life. Now, after eight happy years together, she’s more than comfortable with her choice.
On television, Steve’s “Crocodile Hunter” series took off and became an instant success. It transported the Irwins into the living rooms of animal enthusiasts around the world. The “Crocodile Hunter” programs are so popular in the United States that Steve has been named the most recognisable Australian face in the country, and his trademark saying, “What a little beauty!” has caught on with viewers.
Across America people hold Croc Parties, and attend fancy-dress balls attired as their hero, garbed in his trademark khaki shorts, shirt and hiking boots. A British journalist says he will nominate Steve for Australia’s first president because he has no trouble coping with crocodiles, sharks and venomous snakes—a handy talent in the feral world of politics!
Meeting the Irwins, you discover that their fame and popularity doesn’t seem to have changed them. They’re still just the couple next door, and they interact personally with the public.
A friend admits they have a unique view of their public. “Terri and Steve realise that without the support of their viewers and visitors to their zoo, they wouldn’t be able to achieve that which means so much to them.
“Their love of all God’s creatures is certainly incredible and refreshing. And, yes, what you see is what you get; they are the same people off screen as you see on screen. Their passion for wildlife is contagious.”
Last year Terri and Steve became parents. Their daughter Bindi Sue recently celebrated her first birthday. But running the zoo and recording “Crocodile Hunter” has left them little time for a family life, so they treasure their times together. Becoming parents has complicated their busy, professional lives, but that’s OK. They work around it.
When Steve visited Africa last year, he had to leave his Terri and Bindi Sue in Australia. “It was just too risky to take [Bindi] to Africa,” Terri says. “There are too many disease risks. It’s not worth tempting fate to take her there. Steve missed her a lot, but we would never put Bindi at risk for any photo shoot, which changes the way we have to record documentaries now.”
On the trip Steve encountered a deadly and feared black mamba snake. “Fear is a good thing,” he says, “It helps keep you alive! When you go after a black mamba, and you’ve been told it can bite you 10 times before you can blink once, you shouldn’t be taking things lightly.”
Due to his long association with animals, Steve has developed an ability to get anxious or aggressive animals to calm down and relax. They sense that he means them no harm, and that really fascinates the television audience.
“Everyone says I have some sort of sixth sense, and some of the crew refer to it as ‘The Force.’ But I think it’s basically my understanding of and respect for animals that Dad taught me.”
While it may horrify most mums and dads, one-year-old Bindi has already developed a love of snakes. Terri says that from the time she could recognise the difference between separate objects she had an admiration of them. Her face lights up when a snake is brought to her, and she will affectionately stroke its cool, smooth body.
Bindi’s career may already be already mapped out, for it appears she, too, will embrace the challenge of getting to know Creation’s creatures with the same intimacy and enthusiasm as have her parents.
The Irwins’ love and knowledge of animals means they’re in constant demand to relocate or care for injured, dangerous or unwanted animals. They’re often called upon to remove a crocodile by a nervous farmer.
“A lot of people don’t realise the impact of removing the crocodiles from their river habitat,” explains Steve. “Crocodiles are at the top of the food chain, and removing them can allow overpopulation of other species, which may end up more trouble than the odd croc.
“It’s good to have a healthy respect for these big fellas, but if you stay out of their way, they’ll stay out of yours. Keep back from the water’s edge and you’ll be safe. And never swim where signs warn of crocs.”
Even though filming commitments to television take Steve and Terri away from Australia Zoo, it remains their first priority. Visitors to the zoo find it an interesting, sometimes exciting experience.
“Our goal,” says Terri, “is that even if the public don’t necessarily find the animals attractive, like Steve and I do, at least they’ll go away informed.”
Thanks to their enthusiasm, the zoo is flourishing. It is home to hundreds of different species of native Australian animals, including koalas, kangaroos, birds of prey, small clawed otters, cassowaries, alligators, monitors and skinks. Its collection of reptiles is the biggest in Australia.
The zoo is also home to Harriet, a Galapagos tortoise. Harriet turns 170 in November and is, as far as anyone knows, the world’s oldest tortoise—she was once Charles Darwin’s pet.
And, of course, there are crocodiles.
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This is an extract from April 2000
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