Australian Steve Irwin is an adventurous fellow. Based on his actions, many would say he’s crazy.
Consider this: On any given day Irwin, a k a “The Crocodile Hunter,” might be wrestling an alligator or dangling a poisonous snake by its tail in an effort to bring wildlife closer to TV viewers.
In so doing, he has made his show the highest-rated show in the history of cable TV’s Animal Planet.
“I take great pride in having never been maimed by a shark, snake or croc,” Irwin says. “I have had some encounters, what I would call mistakes. I try very, very hard to avoid making those mistakes.”
In short, Irwin and his American-born wife, Terri, put Marlon Perkins and Jim Fowler to shame. (They’re the duo who pioneered televised wild life adventures on “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” in the ’60s and ’70s.)
“The Crocodile Hunter,” airing Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m., offers a regular dose of Irwin’s adventures — which often put him, his wife and their camera crew at risk.
Irwin’s approach to animals is unique, to say the least. He’s a colorful character with a thick Aussie accent who isn’t afraid to tumble in the mud to capture a big crododile. Rather than use a long lens to capture footage of animals from a distance, he’s on top of them. Neither is his wife afraid of mixing it up with an alligator.
“I believe Terry and I and (his dog) Sui are able to get people right there . . . I’m not talking to a camera, I’m talking to you,” Irwin says.
“I want people to feel the power of the rattlesnake,” he adds. “God has gifted me (with) that tability.”
Irwin, director of the Australia Zoo in Beerwah, grew up around animals. His parents, Lyn and Bob Irwin, ran the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, and his dad taught Steve everything there was to know about reptiles.
By the time he was 9, Steve was catching crocodiles with his father, and it wasn’t unusual for the family to have animals running around the house.
Though his father trained him to work with wildlife, he also required Steve to learn another trade. After Steve became a diesel mechanic, his father hired him to work at the reptile park.
“His parents say when he was little he was just a handful,” Terri says. “If you couldn’t find him, you’d look up. He’d climb on the roof, or the trees. Being the wife is easy. I wouldn’t want to be his mom.”
Irwin got started on TV in 1992 in Australia and debuted here in 1996 on Animal Planet, a spinoff from the Discovery Channel.
“The Crocodile Hunter” is much more than a wildlife series, however. A portion of the audience is no doubt tuning in to see if Irwin gets bitten — which happens quite often — or to get a dose of his trademark comment, “Isn’t she a beauty,” often stated passionately while staring down something at something with fangs.
Indeed, a college drinking game has developed around Irwin: Students will toss back their beverages when he utters the phrase. And nearly a dozen Web sites have been created to track his activities.
While it may appear otherwise, Irwin says he doesn’t seek out dangerous situations. They just find him. And when they do, he says, fear is not part of the equation. He’s running on pure adrenaline, and it’s not until later that it sinks in how bad it might have been.
“I don’t sit back and say, what’s the next near-death experience Steve Irwin could have?” he says. “My whole life has gone from one heck of an experience to another.”
Irwin’s biggest fan is no doubt his wife, who says she was “totally blown away” when they met in 1991.
More Top Picks Best Polarized Sunglasses For Fishing
An Oregon native, Terri was well into a career in wildlife when she headed to Australia to visit wildlife parks. With some friends, she visited Irwin’s zoo, where they stopped to watch a guy giving a crocodile demonstration.
“It sounds funny, but I have met men in the United States who I swear just worked with wildlife to get chicks,” she says. “After the demonstration, I figured he was taken, I asked him a few wildlife questions and he was really on the mark.”
A month later, after she’d returned to Oregon, Irwin called, wanting to visit. They married in 1992, and she’ll give birth to the couple’s first child in August.
“When I met him, I thought, here is someone who is genuinely a hero,” she explains. “He will lay his life on the line. We’re just going 90 m.p.h., and there’s no end in sight.”
Her husband, she adds, has a magic with the animals she can’t explain: “I’ll pick up a nonvenomous snake, and it will bite me three times. He’ll pick it up, and it will say, `Steve, I love you.’ “
The couple’s most recent adventure was spending a month in the States in search of rattlesnakes. “Your snakes are unbelievable, mate,” says Steve. “We’ve always been facinated by rattlers. They had the hugest fangs. They are the smartest snakes in the world.
He has never been bitten by a venomous snake, something he attributes to his technique: getting down in their position. In doing so, Irwin can show viewers more than they’d ever see otherwise. “Our whole reason to be on this planet is to educate people about wildlife,” he says. “I will die doing that. I have a gift.”