The Crocodile Hunter: The Incredible Life and Adventures of Steve and Terri Irwin (25 page)

Bindi's favorite animals are snakes. She loves them! (Photo courtesy of Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd)

We arrived at the water hole to find the most fearless alligator that we had ever encountered. Steve had a fish on a string and the alligator walked right out of the water and straight up to Steve. This was one fearless, dangerous alligator. Once Steve got a rope over the alligator’s head, it was simply a matter of jumping on the alligator and holding him down until he could be moved to his new home. Even though we had help from several of the Jackson Guard, this alligator was not going to give up easily. He simply started walking back to the water with five of us lying on him! This wily gator seemed to take great pride in dragging us through some nice deep, sticky, smelly mud. We were all covered from head to toe before we got that overgrown lizard stopped! Once we finally got successfully moved into the back of a waiting pickup truck, it was a quick trip to his new (and remote) pond. After the alligator was released we were all very happy and excited…except for Bindi. She had waited patiently long enough and began to wail for some tucker. Since she was still breastfeeding, I knew this would settle her right down. So I headed for a private spot to spend some time with her. Bindi took one look at me and started crying even louder. She seemed a bit panicked, like she didn’t know who I was. Then I realized my mistake. I was so covered with mud that I was unrecognizable. The mud had soaked right through my clothes and I smelled like a swamp. Now what was I going to do? Once again, it was Steve to the rescue. He waded right through a nearby pond and couldn’t find any alligators in it. He then handed me some soap, towel, and an extra set of his clothes from his backpack. I took a quick tub—really quick in case there was an alligator in that pond that he missed—and Bindi and I were back in business!

Bindi waxes Daddy's surfboard.

It’s an unfortunate reality that Bindi can’t go filming everywhere in the world with Steve. Some areas are too much of a disease risk for Bindi (malaria, yellow fever, and more) and some areas just have too much political unrest. When we decided to film a documentary right across Australia it meant that we could all be together the whole time. Bindi wasn’t quite old enough to walk when we bundled her into the DC-10 and headed west.

After takeoff, Bindi was delighted to discover that she was allowed out of her seat to crawl and climb all over the plane. There was heaps of room, and since we flew under ten thousand feet, the view was spectacular. Australia’s interior is a brilliant mosaic of red and brown desert. Some of it is made up of incredible rock formations and occasionally we would even find some water. The highlight of my trip was landing at Ayers Rock. The mighty rock, known as Uluru by the aborigines, has been a sacred site to the indigenous people for tens of thousands of years.

As we approached this magnificent landmark, we all felt that this was a place of immense spiritual significance. The local aborigines did not believe in climbing the giant rock, and we respected their wishes.

Bindi with Harriet.

Bindi sat at the base of Uluru with us, happily munching away on all the red sand she could shove into her mouth, when she suddenly started trying to stand and crawl up the huge rock. Steve and I weren’t sure what she was doing, but we tried to help by supporting her so she wouldn’t slip over. Bindi placed her hands on the rock and gently rested her cheek against it. She closed her eyes and stood that way for some time. Steve and I looked at each other. We both had goose bumps. Bindi had made us both feel a bit eerie and unsettled, as it appeared she was “listening” to the rock. Finally she crawled off after a little lizard and the spell was broken. This was to be the first of many unusual bonds that Bindi would make with nature. Her intuition is incredible. She will often worry about an animal before Steve and I discover that it’s sick or injured. This uncanny connection reminds me of the abilities Steve has with wildlife, a strange sixth sense that we refer to as “the force.”

This bizarre instinct with wildlife seems to be an Irwin trait that has been handed down from Bob and Lyn to their son Steve, and now Bindi.

We always treasured the time we would spend with Steve’s parents. Bob was the wrangler, showing Bindi every snake and lizard that passed by. Bindi learned early on that some snakes were “hot” (our word for venomous) and couldn’t be touched. She proudly pointed out a large, highly venomous western brown snake on a camping trip when she was just two and a half years old. Bob would let Bindi wrangle the occasional harmless small carpet python and Bindi demonstrated the Irwin family finesse with each and every one. From snakes to koalas, Bindi’s “Poppy” enthused her to love the natural world.

It was Steve’s mother, Lyn, who instilled in Bindi a compassionate heart for all wildlife. Bindi’s “Gran” showed her how to approach everything from kangaroos to echidnas. Like all children, Bindi can be a bit rough at times, but through Lyn’s patient guidance, Bindi learned to always be gentle and quiet with animals. I see Lyn in Bindi’s mannerisms and I see Lyn in Bindi’s eyes. Bindi was only eighteen months old when she lost her Gran, but she lives on in Bindi’s soul. If you ask Bindi where Gran is, she will smile and say, “Gran is an eagle.” Every time I see an eagle fly over, I am reminded that Bindi’s Gran is still watching over her.

Although I cannot predict what the future will hold for Bindi, I am sure of one thing: Bindi will continue to be a protector of wildlife. She will fight to defend the animals she loves and she will have a special place in this world. With a father like Steve, who regularly lays his life on the line to defend the wildlife he loves, how could Bindi be any different? I will do my best to make this world a better place for Bindi, and I’m really not terribly worried about her. Life will be filled with adventure and challenge and I know that Bindi will do well. She has to. Like her family before her, Bindi is a wildlife warrior.

Bindi showing her dad the crocodiles.

Saving the World from Beerwash

T
imes are changing for zoos around the world. No longer are zoos simply a venue for displaying nature’s weird and wonderful wildlife. Today, zoos must evolve to take on much more responsibility with regard to regional and global conservation. I am proud to say that Australia Zoo continues to be leading the way with strategies that incorporate people as well as animals and their habitat. We firmly believe that if people are struggling for survival, wildlife issues are at the bottom of the list. But if we can make an effort to help ensure that everyone has healthy children with full tummies, we can more successfully achieve our conservation goals.

Steve and I also operate Australia Zoo with a philosophy that might not seem to make the best business sense. Since 1970, the Irwin family maintained a strict policy that the needs of our animals will always come first, our team will come second, and our visitors rank third. Although it sounds odd not to put the customer first, the reality is just the opposite. With incredibly healthy and happy animals, our team has higher morale and overwhelming passion for their work. Patrons of Australia Zoo win, too, because they experience our enthusiastic team and zoo animals as they’ve never seen them before.

With our “Wandering Wildlife” program, we are taking many animals out of their enclosures to interact with people. You could encounter almost anything, like a koala, a box tortoise, a shingleback lizard, a cockatoo, a peregrine falcon, dingoes, giant pythons, and much more. With some animals, like the kangaroos and wallabies, you enter their area with them. Still other animals, like our otters, Tasmanian devils, and crocodiles, may not be ideal for visitor interaction, but they sure love to have a go at a keeper! Not only is all this activity excellent for our animals’ psychological health, it instills in everyone a greater desire to look after these animals in the wild. That’s the bottom line. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why Steve and I work so hard at Australia Zoo, filming wildlife documentaries, shooting movies, promoting our wildlife toys, and even writing this book.

Helping an adult male red kangaroo with a broken leg.

We are inviting everyone to join our team and work together to protect our wild world. The single greatest contribution an individual can make to save wildlife is to simply not purchase
any
wildlife product. The illegal wildlife trade is a multi-billion-dollar market, surpassed only by the illegal drug trade. Some wildlife products are obvious. Most of us would never dream of buying a monkey paw ashtray or an elephant leg umbrellast and. But most products are far subtler: turtle shell combs, snakeskin hatbands, emu oil, oralligator skin boots. The consumer doesn’t need any of these things. They are simply novelty items and trinkets. Until we stop the legal trade of wildlife products, we don’t have a hope of enforcing laws against the illegal trade.

Australia Zoo incorporates a three-step approach to wildlife care: protecting habitats, preserving species, and rehabilitating individual animals. We firmly believe that losing sight of any of these areas would be detrimental to conservation. When it comes to preserving species, so many are in the “endangered” category it can be a bit overwhelming.

With valuable input from our zoo director, Wes Mannion, we have developed a state-of-the-art Endangered Species Unit (ESU). This facility is designed to mimic the needs of endangered species in the wild. No expense has been spared making sure these off-display animals are content enough to breed successfully. For some, it’s the first time they have reproduced in captivity anywhere in the world. The knowledge we are gaining will not only help us to secure animals in captivity, but also replenish wild populations.

We are very proud to have accomplished this with the canopy goannas of Far North Queensland. After our world-first breeding, the offspring were released (along with the parents) in the exact territory—the very tree, in fact—from which they came. And with several babies hatched, and seventy more eggs in the incubator, we’re about to do the same thing with the critically endangered rusty monitor. With the important data that we have collected and published, we can be confident that these species have a promising future. Our current challenge is the Fijian crested iguana. Love is in the air, and with any luck, we will soon hear the pitter-patter of ever more scaly little feet. And lest you think the ESU is only a haven for our reptile friends, we’re working with cassowaries, wombats, koalas, bilbies, frogs, and otters…just to name a few!

Another endangered species, the rusty monitor.

Steve isn’t just discovering new ways to help animals in captivity; he’s discovering new animals in the wild, too. One of Steve’s most famous finds happened way back in the early eighties. He was surveying a river of crocodiles with his dad when he saw an unusual flash of white in the water. With Steve’s usual enthusiasm, and total disregard for unspotted crocodiles, he jumped straight in the river to check it out. Although it managed to elude him, Steve identified this creature, with its white head and pink nose, as a strange turtle, the likes of which he’d never seen before. Steve couldn’t have been more right. Some years after his first encounter, he brought one of these strange turtles in for identification. Not only was Steve’s discovery exciting for the world of herpetology, he also had the honor of having a newfound species of turtle named after him: Irwin’s Turtle,
Elseya Irwini
.

Irwin's Turtle,
Elseya Irwini, a tortoise named after Steve
and his dad.

When it comes to conservation, Steve and I aren’t just focused on the big picture. We are devoted to the needs of individual animals, too. Every day we receive dozens of calls asking for help with some kind of critter. Sometimes it’s with concern for an animal that may have been hurt, and sometimes it’s with concern that an animal may have hurt someone. So whether it’s a koala that’s been hit by a car or a brown snake in somebody’s bedroom, we’re off in a flash to give aid.

We have two rescue vehicles designed to respond to any animal emergency. From emus to crocodiles, we can wrangle absolutely anything. We provide twenty-four-hour care for any wildlife requiring rehabilitation whether the animal is sick, injured, or orphaned. We’ve constructed a complete “Vet Block” to provide any necessary veterinary care. This is a huge annual expense for Australia Zoo, yet a conservation component that we cannot ignore.

Thankfully, most of our wildlife rehabilitation efforts have a happy ending and the animals can be set free. But in many cases, the recovered wildlife shouldn’t go back to the location in which it was found. The busy road, pack of dogs, or illegal shooter are still there…the very thing that caused the problem in the first place. So Steve and I picked some suitable habitat (2,000 acres of it) in the outback. Managed by Steve’s dad, Bob, this facility has become a haven for a myriad of spectacular wildlife. It’s our very own Garden of Eden, where wildlife is safe from the dangers of civilization.

Will Steve and I ultimately succeed in making a positive difference for the planet? With your help, we’re sure to win. Now more than ever we are all becoming more aware about the need to conserve our precious living heritage. What will I leave behind for Bindi? I will leave her the truth. We are surrounded by lying wildlife perpetrators, hiding behind the cloak of “science.” The day will come when sustainable use, controlled culls, scientific whaling, and other lies will be exposed and become atrocities of the past. The truth is that we will never save wildlife by killing it. Together, we can work to protect the inhabitants of planet Earth. If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.

Terri and I are totally dedicated to conservation. Our passion for wildlife is our elixir of life and we’ll die defending animals that others deem dangerous and threatening. Our work is to challenge those who continue to carry on with medieval attitudes such as “the only good croc is a dead one,” “the only good shark is a dead shark,” “there’s a snake—quick, kill it.” Terri and I work to make those old, ugly, anti-wildlife attitudes extinct.

We humans still have a long way to go with learning to live harmoniously with our environment and its wildlife. For example, as you’re reading this paragraph, our whales and dolphins are still dying painful lingering deaths.

I’ve seen dolphins and whales enjoying human interaction. I’ve heard stories of them saving people from drowning. We reward them with death, disease, and destruction. Our oceans and waterways continue to be dumping grounds for toxic waste bacteria and other pollutants, slowly but surely killing our magnificent cetaceans. Dolphin-friendly tuna makes me laugh—Terri and I have stopped eating tuna until the tuna nets cease killing tens of thousands of dolphins every single year. There are still countries that kill dolphins for use as crab bait!

Swimming with the dolphins-you’ve gotta love ‘em.

Two years ago I was diving at Cape York Peninsula when I noticed some movement twenty feet below me. It looked like a shark in distress and I quickly powered down. As I got closer and closer I became horrified, nearly vomiting into my snorkel. On the sandy bottom of the ocean were the bodies of several live sharks with all their fins amputated. They couldn’t swim or move. I was so disgusted and distraught I wanted to cry. Shark fin fishermen had caught the sharks and, while they were still alive, cut off all their fins and then tossed them overboard to die a painfully slow hideous death. Reality check: Think about having your arms and legs cut off, then being left in the sun to die slowly.

It never ceases to amaze me how cruel some people are. Do you think people would be so merciless and torturous if fish and sharks cried like babies when they felt pain?

I’m disappointed when I consider the fate of our crocodilians. Out of the twenty-two-odd species, most are classified as vulnerable or endangered, the threat of extinction ever-present. I find it fascinating that the world’s crocodilians survived the great dinosaur extinctions and have been on this planet for nearly 200 million years, in excess of 180 million years before humans ever started to evolve. They are the true survivors—modern-day dinosaurs.