Steve Irwin
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<!-- start content --><TABLE class=infobox style="FONT-SIZE: 90%; WIDTH: 22em" cellSpacing=5><CAPTION style="FONT-SIZE: larger; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">
Steve Irwin</CAPTION><TBODY><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" colSpan=2>
</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">Born:</TH><TD>
22 February 1962
Essendon,
Victoria,
Australia</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">Died:</TH><TD>
4 September 2006
Batt Reef,
Queensland,
Australia</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">Occupation:</TH><TD>
television personality,
zoo owner</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">Website:</TH><TD>
www.crocodilehunter.com</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right">Children:</TH><TD>2</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Stephen Robert Irwin (
22 February 1962 –
4 September 2006) was an
Australian television personality. He was best known for the television program
The Crocodile Hunter, an unconventional
wildlife documentary series which he hosted with his wife
Terri Irwin. He is a world-renowned 'Aussie Icon' and his show is broadcasted to numerous countries around the world. He also owned and operated the
Australia Zoo at
Beerwah in
Queensland with friend
William Rollo and his wife.
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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. Bob was a reptile enthusiast and when the family moved, his parents started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around
crocodiles and other reptiles.
Steve became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feedings, as well as care and maintence activities. On his sixth birthday he was given a scrub python. Bob educated Steve on reptiles, with Steve getting involved physically with crocodiles at the age of 9. He became a crocodile
trapper, removing crocodiles from near populated areas, performing the service for free with the
quid pro quo that he kept them for the park. Steve followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a volunteer for the Queensland Government's East Coast Crocodile Management program.
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Career
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Rise to fame
The park was a family business, with Lyn and Bob turning it over in 1991 to Steve. He took over the running of the park, now renamed the "Australia Zoo", and in 1992 met (at the park) and married Terri. The footage, shot by
John Stainton, of their crocodile-trapping
honeymoon became the first episode of
The Crocodile Hunter, which became wildly successful in America and the UK. His exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, constant wearing of
khakis and catch-phrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide:
The Crocodile Hunter aired in over 122 countries worldwide.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-0>
[1]</SUP>
Under Irwin's expansive leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, The Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, and International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to his Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary, and Tiger Temple.
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Film
A poster for
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the
Eddie Murphy film
Dr. Dolittle 2. In 2002, his first feature film,
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, was released. In general, reviews of this film were negative. Steve played himself, as well as performing numerous stunts for the film. The film follows Steve who mistakes some
CIA agents for poacheres. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, whom, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking drone. All the crocodiles used in the film were real, and were actually those that had been caught by Steve. 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 around $13,000,000. It performed well at the box office, taking in just under three times it's budget.
[1] In 2003 Irwin was reportedly in line to host a
chat show on Australian network television, a series that never went into production.
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Animal Planet
Animal Planet then released a Crocodile Hunter special called "Crocodiles & Controversy", which attempted to explain both the "Baby Bob Incident" and the Antarctica incident (see below). This special argues that Irwin's son was never in danger of being eaten by the crocodile, and that Irwin could not have endangered animals in Antarctica.
Animal Planet ended
The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale entitled "Steve's Last Adventure". The last Crocodile Hunter documentary went for three emotional hours with footage of Irwin's across-the-world adventure, visiting locations like 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.
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Later projects
Irwin feeding a crocodile at
Australia Zoo.
In January 2006 as part of
Australia Week celebrations in the USA, Irwin appeared at the
Pauley Pavilion,
UCLA 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.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-1>
[2]</SUP> 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 Steve, and he features in it heavily with his wife and daughter. The show includes the song "Crocodile Hunter, Big Steve Irwin".
Steve Irwin was active in politics and was a supporter of the conservative
Liberal Party of Australia. In particular, he strongly supported the incumbent Prime Minister
John Howard, describing him once as "the greatest leader Australia has ever had" and the "greatest leader in the entire world"; comments which drew a cynical reaction in the Australian media.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-2>
[3]</SUP>
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Media work
A poster from Irwin's Quarantine Matters! campaign.
As well as being a general ambassador for Australia due to the nature of his work, Irwin was also involved in several media campaigns. He was employed by 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" [don't mess around with it].
In 2004 he was appointed ambassador for
The Ghan, an
Adelaide to
Darwin train that began operations in 2004.
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.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-3>
[4]</SUP>
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Honours
In 2001 Irwin was awarded the
Centenary Medal for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism".<SUP class=reference id=_ref-4>
[5]</SUP> In 2004 he was nominated for
Australian of the Year, which was won by
Steve Waugh. Doubts were cast over his nomination when the "baby Bob" incident occurred in January that year.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-5>
[6]</SUP>
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Environmentalism
Irwin 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 urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal
poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: "I consider myself a wild-life warrior. My mission is to save the world's endangered species." <SUP class=reference id=_ref-6>
[7]</SUP> Irwin has bought "large tracts of land" in
Australia,
Vanuatu,
Fiji and the
United States, which he describes as "like
national parks" and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-7>
[8]</SUP>
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-day
Noah", and
British naturalist
David Bellamy lauded his skills as a
natural historian and media performer. <SUP class=reference id=_ref-8>
[9]</SUP> Irwin discovered a new species of turtle that now bears his name,
Elseya irwini - Irwin's Turtle - a type of
snapping turtle found on the coast of Queensland.
[2]
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Personal life
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Family
Steve married in 1992 to
Terri Raines from
Eugene,
Oregon in the United States. The pair had met a few months earlier when Terri had visited the zoo on a holiday. 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's dogs: Bindi, who was accidentally killed by a hunter, and Sui, 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 Terri once said, "The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more."<SUP class=reference id=_ref-9>
[10]</SUP>
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Controversy
Major controversy arose during a public show on
2 January 2004, when Irwin carried his infant son, Bob, in one arm while feeding a chicken carcass to a crocodile with the other hand. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to
Michael Jackson's dangling of his son outside a German hotel window. In addition, child welfare groups,
animal rights groups, and many of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as being irresponsible and tantamount to
child abuse. Irwin claimed that any danger to his son was only a perceived danger and that he was in complete control of the situation, and consistently refused to apologize for his actions despite considerable public outcry both in Australia and abroad. His defenders pointed to his many decades of hands-on experience and direct interaction with crocodiles. Terri Irwin claimed that their child was in no more real danger than a child being taught to swim would be. No charges were filed (although the police did visit Irwin at his home and advised him not to repeat the incident).<SUP class=reference id=_ref-10>
[11]</SUP>
The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures. <SUP class=reference id=_ref-11>
[12]</SUP> In June 2004, allegations were made that he came too close to and disturbed some wildlife (namely
whales,
seals and
penguins) while filming a documentary,
Ice Breaker, in
Antarctica.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-12>
[13]</SUP> Subsequently, the matter was closed without charges being filed.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-13>
[14]</SUP>
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Death
Fans leave flowers at the
Australia Zoo to mourn Irwin's sudden passing.
On
4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a
stingray barb, while off the
Great Barrier Reef in
Queensland,
Australia while filming a segment for his daughter Bindi Irwin's (8 years old at the time) upcoming series. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, to be called
Ocean's Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for his daughter's program.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-14>
[15]</SUP> The
BBC reported that this was only the second known fatality in Australian history from a stingray attack.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-15>
[16]</SUP> The
Sydney Morning Herald lists it as the third known death; the other two deaths being in 1938 and 1945.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-16>
[17]</SUP>
Shortly after 11:00 a.m.
local time (01:00
UTC), Irwin was filming in the
Low Isles,
Queensland near
Port Douglas, north of
Cairns,
Queensland,
Australia,
(Map of where Irwin died) , where he was stung either through his heart <SUP class=reference id=_ref-17>
[18]</SUP> or through the left side of his chest<SUP class=reference id=_ref-18>
[19]</SUP> After he was stung, his crew called for medical help and attempted to resuscitate him. The Queensland Rescue Helicopter responded, taking him to Cairns Base Hospital.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-19>
[20]</SUP> However, Irwin was pronounced dead at noon.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-20>
[21]</SUP> He was not killed by the sting itself but from a puncture to the heart in turn causing cardiac arrest. The
Queensland Police Service notified his family and released a
statement for the media concerning the event.
News of his death prompted a public outpouring expressing shock and loss. Several Australian news websites went down due to high web traffic <SUP class=reference id=_ref-21>
[22]</SUP> and talk-back radio experienced a high volume of callers expressing their grief <SUP class=reference id=_ref-22>
[23]</SUP>, commemorating his passion and exuberance.
Prime Minister John Howard, among many other politicians, expressed his "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son.” <SUP class=reference id=_ref-23>
[24]</SUP>
Steve Irwin's body was flown to a morgue in Cairns, where stunned family and friends were gathering on Monday night.
His American-born wife Terri was told of her husband's death while on a walking tour in
Tasmania, and returned to the
Sunshine Coast with her two children, Bindi (eight) and two-year-old son Bob.
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Trivia
- Irwin was a great fan of the Singapore Zoo, which he considered a sister institution of the Australia Zoo.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-24>[25]</SUP>
- Irwin loved mixed martial arts competitions and trained with Greg Jackson in the fighting/grappling system of Gaidojutsu.
- Irwin appeared in a 2006 ESPN television commercial in their This is SportsCenter series. In the commercial, he wrestled the Gator mascot of the University of Florida to the ground in an ESPN studio hallway.
- A parody of Steve and Terri forms one of the themes of Irregular Webcomic!
- A parody of Steve, Strewth Irwin, is a recurring character on the Flash cartoon On The Moon.
- A parody of Steve is shown on South Park where he shoves his thumb up a crocodile's anus with a view to seriously pissing it off, much to Cartman's delight.
- In 2004, during an interview with Larry King, he admitted that after receiving many painful bites he had a fear of parrots.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-25>[26]</SUP>
- Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers in the Australian Football League, Essendon being where he grew up as a boy[3]. Steve made several appearances with players and was part of an Australian rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of Australia week in early 2006 [4].
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References
- <LI id=_note-0>^ USAweekend.com: Wild Thing, June 18, 2000. <LI id=_note-1>^ The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 13 January 2006. <LI id=_note-2>^ The Sun-Herald: Crikey! Praise for PM puts you in a snake pit, November 9, 2003. <LI id=_note-3>^ The Age: He's smart, by crikey, June 10 2003. <LI id=_note-4>^ www.itsanhonour.gov.au <LI id=_note-5>^ Sydney Morning Herald: Irwin defends stunt, January 6, 2004. <LI id=_note-6>^ The Age: He's smart, by crikey, June 10 2003. <LI id=_note-7>^ Enough Rope transcript: Steve Irwin, 6 October 2003. <LI id=_note-8>^ Reuters: Australia stunned by death of "modern-day Noah", 4 Sep 2006. <LI id=_note-9>^ CNN.com LARRY KING LIVE: Interview With Steve Irwin, airdate November 25, 2004. <LI id=_note-10>^ O'Rourke, Claire, "Croc hunter ducks for cover", Sydney Morning Herald, January 5, 2004. <LI id=_note-11>^ Sydney Morning Herald: Steve Irwin baby concerns prompt law change, February 24, 2005. <LI id=_note-12>^ Middleton, Karen, "Crocodile Hunter's frolic with whales gets frosty reception", Sydney Morning Herald, June 14, 2004. <LI id=_note-13>^ "Irwin cleared after Penguin Probe", BBC News, June 15, 2004. <LI id=_note-14>^ "Croc Hunter Irwin killed by stingray", THE AGE, 2006-09-04. Retrieved on 2006-09-04. <LI id=_note-15>^ 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin killed <LI id=_note-16>^ Stingray risks <LI id=_note-17>^ "Steve Irwin dead", ABC Australia, 2006-09-04. Retrieved on 2006-09-04. <LI id=_note-18>^ Williams, David, "Steve Irwin killed by stingray", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-09-04. Retrieved on 2006-09-04. <LI id=_note-19>^ Queensland Police Service (2006-09-04). Australian wildlife personality Steve Irwin has died. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-09-04. <LI id=_note-20>^ "Steve Irwin dead", The Courier-Mail, 2006-09-04. Retrieved on 2006-09-04. <LI id=_note-21>^ Smart Office News: Steve Irwin Not The Only One To Die, 4 September 2006. <LI id=_note-22>^ 612 ABC radio: Tributes flow for Steve Irwin, 4 September 2006. <LI id=_note-23>^ The Australian: Irwin brought joy to millions: PM, September 04, 2006. <LI id=_note-24>^ Singapore Sling!. International Crocodile Rescue. Retrieved on 16 March 2006.
- ^ CNN LARRY KING LIVE - Transcript of Interview With Steve Irwin Aired 25 November 2004. Retrieved 4 September 2006.
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External links
See
Wikinews article:
Crocodile Hunter's Steve Irwin dies at 44
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Steve Irwin
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Steve Irwin
<TABLE class=metadata id=persondata><TBODY><TR><TH colSpan=2>
Persondata</TH></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>NAME</TD><TD>Irwin, Stephen Robert</TD></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>ALTERNATIVE NAMES</TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>SHORT DESCRIPTION</TD><TD>Australian environmentalist and television personality</TD></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>DATE OF BIRTH</TD><TD>
1962-
02-22</TD></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>PLACE OF BIRTH</TD><TD>
Essendon, Victoria,
Australia</TD></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>DATE OF DEATH</TD><TD>
2006-
09-04</TD></TR><TR><TD class=metadata-label>PLACE OF DEATH</TD><TD>
Batt Reef, Low Isles off
Port Douglas, Queensland,
Australia</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- Pre-expand include size: 35489 bytesPost-expand include size: 13555 bytesTemplate argument size: 9241 bytesMaximum: 2048000 bytes--><!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwiki
cache:idhash:177370-0!1!0!default!!en!2 and timestamp 20060904121623 -->Retrieved from "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin"
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