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Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 1962 – 4 September 2006), nicknamed as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian conservationist and television personality. He achieved world-wide fame from the television program The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally-broadcast wildlife documentary series co-hosted with his wife Terri Irwin. Together with his wife, he also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland, founded by his parents.
Early years
Born to Lyn and Bob Irwin in Essendon, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Irwin moved with his parents as a child to Queensland in 1970. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert interested in herpetology whilst his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, Bob and Lyn Irwin started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.
Irwin became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday he was given a 12-foot scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine, after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age.[1] Also at age nine he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision.[2] 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 quid pro quo that he be allowed to keep them for the park. Crocodiles that he caught were sent down to the family zoo. He stayed in North Queensland for around five years. Irwin followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a volunteer for the Queensland Government's East Coast Crocodile Management program.
Career --------------------------------
Rise to fame The park was a family run business until it was turned over to Irwin in 1991. 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, whilst performing a demonstration. The two married in June 1992, Eugene, Oregon. 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 wildly successful in the United States and the UK. 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 series was now broadcast in over 137 countries, reaching 500 million people. His exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, constant wearing of khakis, and catchphrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide.
Under Irwin's expansive leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation (renamed Wildlife Warriors), 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 sites around the world.
Film In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2. Irwin's only starring feature film role was in 2002's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which was released to mixed reviews. In the film Irwin (who portrayed himself and performed numerous stunts) mistakes some CIA agents for poachers. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, which, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking drone. The film won the Best Family Feature Film award for a comedy film at the Young Artist Awards. The film was produced on a budget of about $12 million, and has grossed $33 million. To promote the film, Irwin was featured in an animated short produced by Animax Entertainment for Intermix. In 2003 Irwin was reportedly in line to host a chat show on Australian network television, a series that never went into production.
Animal Planet
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 across-the-world 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. Later projects
In January 2006 as part of "Australia Week" celebrations in the USA, 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.[7] 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 cross-country tours.
Media work Irwin was also involved in several media campaigns. He enthusiastically joined with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to promote Australia's strict quarantine/customs requirements, with advertisements and posters featuring slogans such as, "Quarantine Matters! Don't muck with it". His payments for these advertising campaigns were directed into his wildlife fund
In 2004 he was appointed ambassador for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback, when the line was extended all the way to Darwin on the northern coast that year. For some time he was sponsored by Toyota.
He was also a keen promoter for Australian tourism in general and Queensland tourism in particular. In 2002 the Australia Zoo was voted Queensland's top tourist attraction. His immense popularity in the United States meant he often promoted Australia as a tourist destination there.
Honours
In 2001 Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism". In 2004 he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year. He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year; an honour which was won by Steve Waugh. Doubts were cast over his nomination when the "baby Bob" incident occurred in January of that year. Shortly before his death, he was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology.
Environmentalism
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."[10] 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 realising 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-fin soup: 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? There are people who butt out their cigarettes in gorilla-paw ashtrays, with wastepaper baskets that were once elephant feet, who have ivory ornaments… who wear cheetah fur. Don't buy these things! Then there'll be no market and the animals won't be killed. We have domesticated livestock raised for consumption and perfectly good fake leather and fur, so why must we kill wild animals to satisfy the macabre taste of some rich person?
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 Centre.
Irwin, however, was criticised for having an unsophisticated view of conservation in Australia that seemed more linked to tourism than the problems Australia faces as a continent. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 2002 that Irwin had stated: "Here is my greatest gift to the world," he cries. "We need to stand proud of what is Australia … the greatest grazing nation on the face of the Earth! The whole joint is grazing land … and by crikey we're good at it! We should be … [eating] beef and lamb, not kangaroos and crocodiles. They're why tourists come to Australia. They are tourism icons!"
Media image
Irwin made liberal use of Australian slang (such as his catchcry, "Crikey!") in a very broad Australian accent. His unabashed enthusiasm for dangerous animals and childlike energy drew criticism at times from local critics who saw his style as primitive. He expressed disappointment for media criticism, believing he was being targeted due to a cultural cringe.
Regardless of local opinion, his media personage was very popular worldwide but especially in the U.S., akin to another great international Australian success — Paul Hogan as "Crocodile Dundee" in the 1980s.[11] His friends and family often reported that he was to them as he was to the rest of the world — larger than life. Due to his memorable persona, numerous parodies of Irwin exist, including appearances in 2DTV, The Basil Brush Show, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, The Jedi Hunter, the Flash cartoon On The Moon, the webcomics PvP, Sluggy Freelance, Irregular Webcomic!, and Kevin and Kell (in the latter, he appeared as an anthropomorphic koala), The Simpsons, and the "Prehistoric Ice Man" episode of South Park, among others. He appeared to have fun with his image, even participating in a 2006 ESPN television commercial depicting him wrestling Albert E. Gator, the University of Florida's mascot, to the ground in an ESPN studio hallway.
Regarding his own death, Irwin displayed a sense of humour. He once insisted, "My number one rule is to keep that camera rolling. Even if it's shaky or slightly out of focus, I don't give a rip. Even if a big old alligator is chewing me up I want to go down and go, 'Crikey!' just before I die. That would be the ultimate for me."
Personal life
Family
In 1992, Irwin married Terri Raines from Eugene, Oregon, United States. The pair had met a few months earlier when Raines had visited the zoo on a holiday. Said Terri at the time, "I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy."[26] Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence "Bob" Irwin (born 1 December 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin's favourite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire 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."
Controversy
Some controversy arose during a public show on 2 January 2004, when Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Bob, in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a 3.8-metre saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window (in the attempt to present his son to the crowd of fans). In addition, child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Despite public outcry by some in Australia and abroad, Irwin refused to apologise for the incident. Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son were in any danger. This was also an old crocodile that had been in the zoo for years, and which he knew very well, making it possible to predict its behaviour and knowing where the limits of actual danger went. Terri Irwin claimed their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action. The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.
In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming a documentary, Ice Breaker, in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being filed. Animal Planet released a "Crocodile Hunter" special called "Crocodiles & Controversy," which attempted to explain some of the incidents. This special argues that Irwin's son was never in danger of being eaten by the crocodile, and that Irwin was of no threat to the animals in Antarctica.
Politics
After questions arose about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told ABC: I love John Howard, and that's the way I am. So everyone thinks I'm, like, this diehard Liberal supporter. I'm not! I'm not. I'm sitting on the fence, mate; I'm a conservationist. I can't afford to be one way or the other. I just have to run straight up the middle, mate. I have to get on with whoever's in power. And to tell you the truth, the best speech that popped up in Parliament House when George Bush was here was Simon Crean. Here's a bloke who actually disagreed with Iraq, OK, so he put forward the most eloquent speech, which really boosted his profile in my eyes. By crikey, I thought, Simon did the best one there, which is fantastic. So I appreciate good work when I see it, and that's all it is.
Search and rescue effort in Mexico
In November 2003, Irwin was filming a documentary on sea lions off the coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula when he heard via his boat's radio that two scuba divers were reported missing in the area. Irwin and his entire crew suspended operations to aid in the search. His team's divers searched with the rescue divers, and Irwin used his vessel to patrol the waters around the island where the incident occurred, as well as using his satellite communications system to call in a rescue plane. On the second day of the search, kayakers found one of the divers, Scott Jones, perched on a narrow ledge of rocks over waters with dangerous currents. Irwin and a crewmember escorted him to Irwin's boat. Jones reported not recognising his celebrity rescuer as he had never seen Irwin on television. The other lost diver, Katie Vrooman, was found dead later the same day by a search plane not far from Jones's location.
Sports fan
Having grown up in Essendon, Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League.[34] Irwin took part in an Australian Rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of "Australia Week" in early 2006.[35] After his death, a picture of Irwin wearing a Bombers guernsey was shown by ESPN.com in their Bottom 10 ranking of the worst Division I-A college football teams after Week 1 of the season in tribute to him.
Living in Queensland most of his life, Irwin was also a fan of Rugby League. As a teenager he played for the Caloundra Sharks as a second-rower, and as an adult he was known to be a passionate Brisbane Broncos fan and was involved with the club on several occasions. On one occasion after turning up to training he asked if he could tackle the largest player, Shane Webcke. Despite being thrown to the ground and looking like he'd been crushed he was jovial about the experience. An experience he laughingly retold the Queensland State of Origin squad before the 2006 series. Irwin also supported rugby union, being a fan of the national team, the Wallabies. He once wore Wallaby jersey during a demonstration at the zoo. A behind-the-scenes episode of The Crocodile Hunter showed Irwin and the crew finding a gas station in a remote part of Namibia to watch the Wallabies defeat France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
Other personal information
Death
Shortly after 01:00 UTC (11:00 AEST) on 4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray spine whilst snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, at Batt Reef, which is located off the coast of Port Douglas in Queensland. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, to be called The 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 was hosting, when, according to his friend and colleague, John Stainton, he swam too close to one of the animals. "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[44]. After reviewing the footage of the incident and speaking to the cameraman who recorded it, marine documentary filmmaker and former spearfisherman 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 or about 10 inches in length) in an upward motion.
Cropp said Irwin had accidentally boxed in the animal. "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, 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."[46] 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 here [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. Until the coroner's report is released, however, the precise cause of Irwin's death remains conjecture.
Crew members aboard his boat called the emergency services in the nearest city of Cairns and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby the Low Islets to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later.[43] 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." Irwin's body was flown to a morgue in Cairns. His wife, Terri Irwin, was on a walking tour in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park in Tasmania at the time, and returned via a private plane from Devonport to the Sunshine Coast with their two children. Fatalities due to stingrays are infrequent but occurrences are not collated.[49] The attack on Irwin is believed to be the only fatality from a stingray ever captured on film.
Speculations have surfaced which suggest the tape of Steve Irwin's death may be released for broadcast on television. However, the opposite has also been stated. Irwin's friend and manager John Stainton told CNN's Larry King "[The tape] should be destroyed". Nevertheless, Irwin had commented that, if he were to be killed by an animal, he would want the incident filmed. However, in an ABC interview with Barbara Walters, Irwin's wife Terri said she hasn't seen the film of her husband's deadly encounter with the stingray and that it won't ever be shown on television.
Reaction
News of his death prompted widespread shock. Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed his "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." Queensland Premier Peter Beattie commented in a Channel Seven television 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. Talk-back radio experienced a high volume of callers expressing their grief. 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. The president of the Discovery Network, Billy Campbell, released a statement, saying: Our entire company is deeply saddened by the tragic and sudden loss of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Steve was beloved by millions of fans and animal lovers around the world and was one of our planet's most passionate conservationists. He has graced our air since October 1996 and was essential in building Animal Planet into a global brand.
Irwin was very popular in the United States, and tributes flooded U.S. talk shows following Irwin's death. 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. The View's co-host Rosie O'Donnell described informing her son of Irwin's death as if Superman had died for him. Professional wrestler Matt Striker made light of the incident — joking about stingrays on ECW and prompting an apology from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
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.
Criticism
Amid the outpouring of public grief, Germaine Greer published a criticism making statements such as "the animal world has finally taken its revenge" and referring to Irwin's rebuttal to criticism as "that sort of self-delusion is what it takes to be a 'real Aussie larrikin'". The Australian media reacted with distaste to the article amid the praise offered for Irwin, despite Greer's opening recognition in the article that "World-famous wildlife warrior Steve Irwin has died a hero." Some notable Australian politicians regarded Greer's commentary with derision; her remarks were subsequently stamped as "insensitive and, frankly, stupid" by Peter Beattie and "gratuitous, politically correct claptrap" by Shadow Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd. Writing in The Australian, John Birmingham describes his own shock at learning of Irwin's death and his outrage at the "elites", as he describes some including Greer, and their "harsh" and "unfeeling" sentiments.In an interview with the Nine Network's A Current Affair about her comments, Greer said she "really found the whole Steve Irwin phenomenon embarrassing and [that she was] not the only person who did, or indeed the only Australian who did" and that she hoped that "exploitative nature documentaries" would now end. Some have defended Greer, such as Dr. Clive Hamilton, the executive director of the Australia Institute, who, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald admitted that whilst "Irwin was generous in using the wealth he accumulated for private conservation purposes", he was a crude presenter of nature. He accuses some Australians of being dishonest in their grief, claiming that for such persons it was a relief "to find a real target for bitterness in the form of Germaine Greer, whose only mistake was poor timing." "It's the new face of the cultural cringe", writes Hamilton, "we canonise anybody who makes it in the US or Britain no matter how lowbrow the performer." Meanwhile Dan Mathews, vice-president of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said it was "no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal". He added that "[Irwin] made his career out of antagonising frightened wild animals, that's a very dangerous message to send to children." He also made a comparison with another well known conservationist: "If you compare him with a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau, he looks like a cheap reality TV star."
The son of Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau, also a producer of wildlife documentaries, also took issue with Irwin's hands-on approach to nature television. Cousteau asserted "You don't touch nature, you just look at it." Although it "goes very well on television", Irwin's approach would "interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things" which Cousteau felt is "very misleading".
Backlash
In the wake of Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the beaches of Queensland, prompting some speculation that the killings were done as revenge by fans of Irwin. Two stingrays were found near Brisbane, whilst eight were found elsewhere. The tails of the stingrays had been cut off. Wayne Sumpton of the state fisheries department said that fishermen who inadvertently capture stingrays sometimes cut off their tails to avoid being stung, but that the practice was "uncommon".Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's conservation group Wildlife Warriors, said he was concerned the rays were being hunted and killed in retaliation for the TV star's death. He said killing stingrays was "not what Steve was about.
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