The Crocodile Hunter: The Incredible Life and Adventures of Steve and Terri Irwin (26 page)

Terri with an endangered Fijian crested iguana.

After existing for nearly 200 million years, crocodiles have been nearly exterminated in sixty years by hunters with high-powered rifles. If we can’t learn to
live
with such predators, our future is dismal. Imagine Africa without lions, Australia without crocs, the oceans without sharks or dolphins and whales. Who’d want to live here? Not me! So Terri and I push hard—real hard. Every single day of our lives involves wildlife education. We must teach, spread the word, the wildlife gospel. Crocodiles and sharks are only dangerous to those who make the mistake of breaking the ecosystem’s rules.

The greatest contributing factor to croc attack in Northern Australia is alcohol and, guess what? Crocs don’t drink.

With excessive alcohol consumption come bravado and stupidity. Next thing you know the “It’ll never happen to me” attitude takes over and people try to share water with crocodiles. Now, crocs don’t run out onto the highway and rip you out of your vehicle by the jugular. They don’t drop out of trees and tear your arms off, either. And kids, they definitely don’t live under your bed. No, you’ve got to enter into their domain to get into a conflict with these huge reptiles.

Statistically there’s only one crocodile-related human fatality per year in the whole of Australia. There’s more danger on the road traveling to Northern Australia than there is camping by a river with a healthy crocodile population. Thank God crocs aren’t evil, malicious creatures that do like to eat people because we’re amazed at the hundreds of people every year who make the mistake of swimming where they know there are crocs. Terri and I couldn’t resist filming a family of tourists in a river where we were trapping rogue crocs. They casually wandered down to the water, draped their towels over the “WARNING—CROCODILES INHABIT THIS RIVER” sign, and happily swam and frolicked with their children in the water. Crazy stuff!

Luckily our wildlife park and our wildlife documentaries are the perfect vehicles for the educational approach to conservation that Terri and I push. The latter have been seen by millions of people around the world. But while preaching the message of global wildlife conservation, we’re careful to acknowledge that our own Australian backyard is in need of cleaning up. Australia has one of the worst mammalian extinction rates in the world. We’re currently destroying vast areas of rainforest, mangrove, wetland, and desert, all in the name of progress. And as we continue to receive scientific verification of the ways in which we are killing the world’s wildlife, each of us needs to take time to consider every single way we are contributing to the detriment of the environment.

Water holding frogs. Like canaries used by miners of old to give them warning of poisonous gases, these tiny amphibians act as environmental indicators.

I plead with every single businessperson who reads this book to focus on rectifying any damage your business processes are doing to the environment. The time has come when all of us must be held accountable. We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.

The single greatest threat is loss of habitat. We can breed endangered species in captivity but with nowhere wild to release them their days are probably numbered.

Now is the time to preserve and protect what habitat is remaining.

It’s obvious that every man, woman, and child can contribute to the well-being of our native wildlife and the planet through simple day-to-day stuff such as recycling, chemical and pollution awareness, and not wasting water.

As for Terri and myself, our aim is to continue producing more wildlife programs to entertain and enlighten. We’ll take the audience to some of the wildest and remotest territories in the world. I gain more power and understanding of animals if I’m right in among them, and I’m finding myself doing more and more of the filming, as it’s hard or too dangerous to get a cameraman in as close as I want to be. Hearing, smelling, and seeing the animal and its surroundings is always my prime objective.

Almost fifty percent of my time is spent on filming; the other half is taken up with our zoo, which is our base, and from here we’re saving the world—from Beerwah.

Isn’t she just gorgeous?

Epilogue

Our Wildlife Force

I
t was the greatest day of my life. My mum and dad drove me into the small gravel parking lot and I jumped out of the car and beckoned impatiently as Mum and Dad locked it up. They knew how excited I was—reptiles, especially snakes, were my passion and I had longed to get a firsthand glimpse at these amazing creatures in living color. I couldn’t wait for my parents and stormed in.

As I entered the zoo, my eyes suddenly fixed on a large glass panel; a slight movement caught my eye, and as I drew closer, a wave of golden brown flashed before my eyes.
Fierce snake!
I screamed with delight. It was the snake I had dreamed about seeing my whole young life. The world’s most venomous snake! My eyes were as big as dinner plates, and just as I thought I would explode with excitement, a sweet voice came from behind me.

“Can I help you?”

I spun around and it was Lyn Irwin, Steve’s mum. She had a big smile and was gently coaxing a small eastern grey kangaroo to lap from a dish of milk. Beneath her, three more joeys looked up lovingly, with only their heads protruding from their artificial pouches.

The Glasshouse Mountains where we live.

She gave them a motherly glance, and content with that, the little orphans tucked their heads back into the warmth of their pouches. My eyes were now fixed on Lyn as she tended to some tourists, taking money and packaging some souvenirs without the little joey even missing a sip of milk. By that time, my mum and dad had caught up and Lyn returned their change. Lyn gave me another big motherly smile and directed us toward the exhibits. I danced down the path brimming with excitement for what lay ahead in this wonderful place. I raced past a group of kookaburras laughing in the early morning sun and took a quick glimpse at a curlew, which would later become one of my best mates.

A little further down the path, I came to another glass panel, and before my eyes lay the most spectacular animal I had ever seen. It was a reticulated python some twenty feet long and weighing over three hundred pounds. She looked into my eyes and her beauty was mesmerizing. Slowly she flicked out her tongue and the light glistened in a rainbow of blues and pinks on her skin. Her scales shimmered in a kaleidoscope of color. We had looked into each other’s eyes for what seemed an eternity when I heard voices behind me.

“Take her, Stevo.” I swung around. “Hang on to her, mate!”

I could just see a flash of commotion through the trees. I bolted toward the melee and pressed my face hard up against the fence for a closer look.

“I’ve got her head!”

“Keep the weight on, she’s building up!”

A flash of black scales and human skin whirled in a sea of water. Violently, a big old gator twisted and turned, and the two men atop her hung on tenaciously.

“Hang on, Stevo, she’s going again!” yelled Bob Irwin in a commanding voice. Bob and Steve worked together as one, and slowly, Alison the alligator tired and began to give in. Quickly, Angus, the zoo’s vet, moved in and closely examined Alison’s jaw, quickly suturing a large gash on the top of her mouth that she’d sustained in an altercation with Daisy, her normally gentle mate.

“Clear!” Angus yelled when his job was done.

“One, two, three,” Bob called in a steady voice and both he and Steve were off and clear of the alligator before I could blink. A huge smile erupted on Steve’s face and he let out a hoot of excitement. Bob, not one for a lot of emotion, gave a wry grin and said well done. The two scaled the fence with ease.

“How about some smoko?”

“Sounds great.” All three headed off for the traditional morning tea.

My jaw dropped to the ground. I couldn’t believe what I had seen. I spent the rest of the day following Steve and Bob’s every move, and from that moment on, I realized my calling. I had stumbled into a magical place, a place where wildlife reigned supreme. Where creatures who are persecuted and hated because of human ignorance and misunderstanding are loved and nurtured. Where visitors are excited and at the same time educated about these beautiful creatures. A place where everything else pales in comparison to the well-being and protection of wildlife. It had evolved from a family of extraordinary and dedicated people, and I had walked into the heart, soul, and beginning of Australia Zoo.

Fifteen years have passed since that day, and the core values created by Bob, Lyn, Steve, and his two sisters Joy and Mandy have not changed. Back then, Australia Zoo was called the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, and since those amazingearly days, our Australia Zoo family has grown to over one hundred members. The size and shape of Australia Zoo has changed with the times, and today it encompasses over thirty acres, with over 150 acres planned for future development. We have one of the finest zoo logical facilities in the world, and our success with breeding some of the world’s most endangered speciesis a testimony to this.

In the early years, here I am after catching a sand goanna.

Our mission statement—“Conservation through exciting education”—is the driving force behind our family. We hold this deeply in our hearts. If you can’t excite people about wildlife, how can you convince them to love, cherish, and protect our wildlife and the environment they live in?

Australia Zoo is riding on a wave of passion and enthusiasm. We are here for the conservation of wildlife right across the globe. This deep-seated passion has come from the beginnings of Australia Zoo’s history, and has created a wildlife “force” which has reached millions of people in every corner of the earth by virtue of Steve Irwin, television’s Crocodile Hunter, his entire family, and the staff of Australia Zoo. The message is simple: love and conserve our wildlife.

The Australia Zoo team celebrating after a successful crocodile relocation.