Steve Irwin, a.k.a. “The Crocodile Hunter,” noted conservationist, and television host, died at age 44 on September 4 from cardiac puncture by a stingray barb, while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

He was born to Bob and Lynn Irwin, a plumber and a nurse, respectively. He grew up on his parents’ reptile park, north of Brisbane. His sixth birthday gift was a twelve-foot python, and he caught his first crocodile at the age of nine. After high school, he spent five years volunteering for the Queensland Government’s East Coast Crocodile Management Program, which relocated crocodiles that had become a danger to the local population. He transferred most of those captured to his family’s reptile park. In 1991, he took over the family business, and renamed it Australia Zoo. In that year, he met his wife, Terri Raines of Oregon, at the zoo. They married in 1992. He leaves behind two children, eight-year-old daughter Bindi, named after a favorite crocodile, and two-year-old son Bob.

In 1992, an old friend, John Stainton, filmed a commercial at the zoo. This spawned a lifelong collaboration, resulting in Irwin’s television series, several documentaries, and a movie. The Crocodile Hunter television series started in Australia in 1996 and premiered the following year in the US. Its popularity grew, and it is currently broadcast in 137 countries, reaching 500 million viewers. Irwin’s movie, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, was released in 2001. His shows were considered innovative in their up close and personal style, contrasting with traditional nature shows which are usually filmed at a distance with an off-camera academic narration. He received criticism of his shows from those who felt his showmanship only promoted animal cruelty and encouraged children to perform his dangerous stunts. He felt he was sharing his love of wildlife with the next generation. “I believe that education is all about being excited about something,” he told Scientific American in a 2001 interview. He was widely condemned in 2004 for bringing his then 6-month-old son disturbingly close to a feeding crocodile on camera. He countered that he was in complete control during that incident. Irwin also received criticism for upsetting some seals and penguins during the 2004 documentary Ice Breaker.

Irwin was very passionate and vocal about certain environmental issues. He had a three-pronged approach to wildlife conservation: educate the children, preserve endangered animals, and protect the wildlife habitats. “So any of the animals that are endangered or likely to become extinct because of habitat destruction, we’re pulling them into zoos—predominantly rescuing the animals that are going to die anyway—and housing them, learning every single detail about how we can breed them and establishing satellite colonies of that species so that we’re ready when the cure does come, when we can rebuild habitat”¹.

He purchased large tracts of land in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the United States in order to save those habitats for endangered species. “So we need to help them [farmers] fight off the old grazing techniques of, you know, clear-cutting, and we need to promote riverine areas and also have trees in and around grazing areas so that kangaroos have shade, cows have shade. I believe our biggest issue is the same biggest issue that the whole world is facing, and that is habitat destruction. Which gets me to my grazier-can-have-koalas-in-his-paddock strategy. I sincerely believe that there’s room for cutting down trees for forestry and grazing, so as we all get to eat. Everyone has to compromise. I think every single person in the world has to compromise. We have to find a compromise and cut down the amount of habitat destruction”¹.

He was very much against commercial exploitation of wild animals, “These Hitlers use the camouflage of science to make money out of animals… So whenever they murder our animals and call it sustainable use, I’ll fight it. Since when has killing a wild animal, eating it or wearing it, ever saved a species?”². He discouraged tourists from buying products of endangered species such as turtle shells or shark fin soup.

Steve Irwin founded the charities Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, International Crocodile Rescue, and the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund, with proceeds going to a wildlife rehabilitation center. The University of Queensland was getting ready to honor Irwin with an adjunct chair for his effort with crocodiles when they heard of his death.

On the day of his death he was filming a documentary, The Ocean’s Deadliest, off the Great Barrier Reef. He approached a stingray with his cameraman, and possibly the animal felt threatened. The ray responded by flexing its tail with its serrated spine, which pierced Irwin’s heart. He stopped breathing and had no pulse. His crew brought him aboard his boat, and performed CPR, but emergency services pronounced him dead upon arrival. On September 9, a private funeral was held. Irwin’s close associates and family remembered him around a campfire at Australia Zoo. A national memorial was held on September 20, broadcast around the world and attended by politicians and celebrities.

References:

¹ Sarah Simpson, “Interview with Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin,” Scientific American (April 18, 2001).

² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin

Frank Robson, “Crikey It’s Raw Stevo!,” The Sydney Morning Herald (April, 2002).

Anna King Murdoch, “He Smart, by Crikey,” The Age (June 10, 2003).

Sandra Lee. “With his animal instinct for the nearly extinct, ‘Croc Hunter’ Steve Irwin is winning over millions as TV’s ultimate game boy and zoo guru,” USA Weekend (June 18, 2000).

“Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed by stingray,” The Australian (September 4, 2006).

“Stars and ordinary Australians bid farewell to Irwin,” http://news.yahoo.com (September 20, 2006).