Stephen Robert Irwin, better known as the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, was born to Lyn and Bob Irwin in Essendon, Victoria, on February 22, 1962. He became world-famous as a result of his popular Crocodile Hunter wildlife documentaries. He died on September 4, 2006, after being stung by a stingray in the waters of far north Queensland. The popular 44-year-old international TV star, a finalist for Australian of the Year in 2004, was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas north of Cairns when he was stung.

Early days

He was born in Essendon and after that Irwin moved with his parents Queensland in 1970. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert, while his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, his parents started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles. has taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday he was given a 4m long, scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine. Also at age nine, he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father’s supervision. He graduated from Caloundra State High School in 1979. He soon moved to Northern Queensland, where he became a crocodile trapper, removing crocodiles from populated areas where they were considered a danger. He performed the service for free with the condition, that he be allowed to keep them for the park. Irwin followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a volunteer for the Queensland Government’s East Coast Crocodile Management program.

Career

The park was a family run business, until it was turned over to Steve. He took over the running of the park, now called Australia Zoo (renaming it in 1992). Also that year, he appeared in a one-off reptile and wildlife special for television. In 1991, he met Terri Raines at the park. The two of them have married in June 1992. The footage, shot by John Stainton, of their crocodile-trapping honeymoon became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series debuted on Australian TV screens in 1996, and by the following year had made its way onto North American television. The Crocodile Hunter became successful in the United States and in the UK. In 1998, he continued, working with producer and director Mark Strickson, to present The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. By 1999, he had become very popular in the United States, making his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. By this time, the Crocodile Hunter series was broadcast in over 137 countries, reaching 500 million people. His enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, signature khaki shorts, and catchphrase “Crikey!” became known worldwide. Sir David Attenborough praised Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying “He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was, he was a born communicator”. Under Irwin’s leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation and the International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to the Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and Tiger Temple. Irwin mentioned that he was considering opening an Australia Zoo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and possibly at other places around the world. Animal Planet ended The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale entitled “Steve’s Last Adventure”. The last Crocodile Hunter documentary spanned three hours with footage of Irwin’s adventure in locations including the Himalayas, the Yangtze River, Borneo, and the Kruger National Park. Irwin went on to star in other Animal Planet documentaries, including The Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and New Breed Vets. As a part of the United States’ “Australia Week” celebrations in January 2006, Irwin appeared at the Pauley Pavilion, UCLA in Los Angeles, California. During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Irwin announced that Discovery Kids would be developing a show for his daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin. The show, Jungle Girl, was tipped to be similar to The Wiggles movies, with songs that surround a story. A feature length episode of Australian kids TV show The Wiggles entitled “Wiggly Safari” appears dedicated to Irwin, and he’s featured in it heavily with his wife and daughter. The show includes the song “Crocodile Hunter, Big Steve Irwin”. In 2006, the American network The Travel Channel had begun to show a series of specials starring Irwin and his family as they travelled on country tours.

About Irwin

Irwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: “I consider myself a wildlife warrior. My mission is to save the world’s endangered species”. Irwin bought “large tracts of land” in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as “like national parks” and stressed the importance of people realizing that they could each make a difference. He had urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells or shark soup. He founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, which was later renamed Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, and became an independent charity. He was described after his death by the CEO of RSPCA Queensland as a “modern Noah,” and British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Irwin and his father discovered a new species of turtle that now bears his name, Elseya irwin, Irwin’s Turtle, a species of turtle found on the coast of Queensland. He also helped to found a number of other projects, such as the International Crocodile Rescue, as well as the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund, in memory of his mother, with proceeds going to the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

Irwin’s family

In 1992, Irwin married Terri Raines from Eugene. The pair had met a few months earlier, when Terri had visited the zoo on a holiday. According to both of them, it was love at first sight. Terri said at the time, “I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a superhero guy”. Although he and Terri were happily married, they did not wear wedding rings. In their line of work, wearing jewelery could pose a hazard to them and the animals. Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence Irwin (born 1 December 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin’s favorite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Stafford Bull Terrier who died in June 2004. Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as “the reason he was put on the Earth”. His wife once said, “The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more”.

Irwin’s death

On 4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, Ocean’s Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for a segment in the television program his daughter Bindi Irwin was hosting, when, according to his friend and colleague, John Stainton, he swam too close to one of the stingrays. “He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat the Croc One. The events were caught on camera, and a copy of the footage was handed to the Queensland Police. After reviewing the footage of the incident and speaking to the cameraman who recorded it, marine documentary filmmaker and former spear fisherman Ben Cropp speculated that the stingray “felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead”. In such a case, the stingray responds to danger by automatically flexing the serrated spine on its tail (which can measure up to 25 cm in length) in an upward motion. Cropp said Irwin had accidentally boxed the animal in. “It stopped and twisted and threw up its tail with the spike, and it caught him in the chest. It’s a defensive thing. It’s like being stabbed with a dirty dagger”. The stinging of Irwin by the bull ray was “a one in a million thing”, Cropp told Time magazine. “I have swum with many rays, and I have only had one do that to me”. Initially, when Irwin’s colleague, John Stainton, was interviewed by CNN’s Larry King late on 4 September 2006 he denied the suggestion that Irwin had pulled the spine out of his chest, or that he had seen footage of the event, insisting that the anecdote was “absolute rubbish”. The following day, when he first described the video to the media, he stated, “Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him in the chest, and he pulled it out and the next minute he’s gone”. It is thought, in the absence of a coroner’s report, that a combination of the toxins and the puncture wound from the spine caused Irwin to die of cardiac arrest, with most damage being inflicted by tears to arteries or other main blood vessels. A similar incident in Florida a month later in which a man survived a stingray barb through the heart suggested that Irwin’s removal of the barb might have caused or hastened his death. The coroner’s report has not yet been released. Crew members aboard his boat called the emergency services in the nearest city of Cairns and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to the nearby Low Islets to meet an emergency rescue helicopter. However, despite the best efforts of Irwin’s crew, medical staff pronounced him dead when they arrived a short time later. According to Dr Ed O’Loughlin, who treated Irwin, “it became clear fairly soon that he had non survivable injuries. He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest. He had lost his pulse and wasn’t breathing”.

How people reacted

Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed his “shock and distress” at the death, saying that “Australia has lost a wonderful and colorful son”. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie commented in a interview that Irwin “will be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian”. Several Australian news websites went down because of high web traffic and for the first time the top 10 list of most viewed stories for Fairfax Digital news sites were swept by one topic. Radio experienced a high volume of callers expressing their grief. Flags at the Sydney Harbor were lowered to half staff in honor of Irwin. The U.S. feed of the Animal Planet cable television channel aired a special tribute to Steve Irwin that started on Monday, 4 September 2006. The tribute continued with the Animal Planet channel showing highlights of Irwin’s more than 200 appearances on Discovery Networks shows. On the evening of his death, Enough Rope re-broadcast an interview between Irwin and Andrew Denton originally broadcast in 2003. CNN showed a repeat of his interview on Larry King Live, originally recorded in 2004. The Australian federal parliament opened on 5 September 2006 with condolence speeches by both the Prime Minister John Howard and the Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley. The Seven Network aired a television memorial show as a tribute to Irwin on 5 September 2006, as did the Nine Network on 6 September 2006. Jay Leno delivered a tribute to Irwin, describing him as a great ambassador of Australia. Irwin appeared on Leno’s talk show on more than ten occasions. There were also tributes on Live with Regis & Kelly and Barbara Walters’ The View. On the former show, Kelly Ripa came close to tears with her praise of Irwin. Hundreds of people visited Australia Zoo to pay tribute to the deceased entertainer and conservationist. The day after his death, the volume of people visiting the zoo to pay their respects affected traffic so much that police reduced the speed limit around the Glass House Mountains Road and told motorists to expect delays. BBC reported on 13 September 2006 that thousands of fans have been to Australia Zoo since Irwin’s death, bringing flowers, candles, stuffed animals and messages of support.

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