Wildlife Hero, Steve Irwin (Dec, 2001)
Master CNN 2007/11/03 14:35[STEVE IRWIN, Zoologist] The biggest animal in the zoo in full glory! And it is only in slow motion, that we can fully appreciate the awesome strike power of a 16-foot male saltwater crocodile! He is big! He is huge! He is black, and because he is that big, you make the mistake of thinking he's gotta be slow! No way! He is fast as greased lightning! And he is dangerous as any creature in the world!
LARRY KING, Host: Steve Irwin is our special guest tonight. His wife Terri is around and about, too, with animals and she will be with us later. He is the host of Animal Planet’sand . He’s director of the Australian Zoo in Queensland, Australia. is coming to the Animal Planet, we will talk about that, and these shows, and are the most successful in the history of that network. Steve, how did this start for you? How did you, a zoologist, come to television?
S.
IRWIN: Well, mate, it was like, in the early ’70s, my dad established Australia Zoo, so mom and dad went about building a zoological facility on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
KING: There had never been a zoo?
S.
IRWIN: No, not at all. And so, mom was a very wellknown pioneer of wildlife rehabilitation, she used to take on injured and orphaned, particularly macropods, you know, baby kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, and she’d nurture them until they were big enough to release back into the wild.
KING: So you grew up in this atmosphere.
S.
IRWIN: Absolutely. I was surrounded by at least a dozen baby kangaroos, wallabies, or koalas all my life. And my dad, he is my hero! The absolute legend of my life. I followed in his footsteps. I’ve just mimicked him all my life, and so he was a herpetologist, one who studies reptiles...
KING: He’s still alive?
S.
IRWIN: He is, mate. He is. Unfortunately, my mom passed away last year, very sad event. Anyway so, they were my heroes, and they started Australia Zoo, so I was born and raised into wildlife, didn't have a big choice.
KING: Welcome back towith Steve Irwin, of the and . Can I see those injuries again? Just the leg injury.
S.
IRWIN: These happened a couple of months ago, little female crocodile. You know, I blew it, and she went down, grabbed my leg, and gave me a bit of a rip. You know, I’ve got... That was the other day, and I’ve got a couple up my arm, here. I’ve got a few here and there in my head. You know, I’ve got a few around my head.
KING: OK, now, explain to me, and you’ve been, probably, injured a lot.
S.
IRWIN: Oh, I have, yeah.
KING: You ever knew Burt Hoss in Miami? He was a serpentarium guy. He fooled around with snakes all the time. And he rushed into the hospital every other month for venom.
S.
IRWIN: Yeah, now he’s only got three fingers left.
KING: That’s right! Why do you do this? I mean you must have fear.
S.
IRWIN: Um, yeah, yeah, jammed back in the back of my brain. I think everyone’s got a fear mechanism, but I try and keep it, you know, suppressed back there somewhere.
KING: So you’ve never been bit where you say I'm not going to do this anymore?
S.
IRWIN: No. No, I haven’t. You know, Larry, these aren’t, it’s not like these scars are trophies, mate. It’s like, they’re interesting, and it helps me to prompt, talk about conservation, that’s what it does. When you get a, when you take a hit and you get a scar, I've made a mistake. I’ve made a mistake. It’s never the animal’s fault.
KING: You don’t get mad at the animal?
S.
IRWIN: Never, no. Not at all. If you get close enough to get bitten, if that tarantula had sunk its fangs in, it was my fault. I knew it had fangs, I was mucking with it. You take the hit.
KING: In our remaining moments with Steve Irwin, we have invited Terri to join us. And Terri has brought a friend of hers. What is that?
TERRY IRWIN: This is a Burmese python that has an unusual color pattern.
LARRY KING, Host: Steve Irwin is our special guest tonight. His wife Terri is around and about, too, with animals and she will be with us later. He is the host of Animal Planet’s
S.
IRWIN: Well, mate, it was like, in the early ’70s, my dad established Australia Zoo, so mom and dad went about building a zoological facility on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
KING: There had never been a zoo?
S.
IRWIN: No, not at all. And so, mom was a very wellknown pioneer of wildlife rehabilitation, she used to take on injured and orphaned, particularly macropods, you know, baby kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, and she’d nurture them until they were big enough to release back into the wild.
KING: So you grew up in this atmosphere.
S.
IRWIN: Absolutely. I was surrounded by at least a dozen baby kangaroos, wallabies, or koalas all my life. And my dad, he is my hero! The absolute legend of my life. I followed in his footsteps. I’ve just mimicked him all my life, and so he was a herpetologist, one who studies reptiles...
KING: He’s still alive?
S.
IRWIN: He is, mate. He is. Unfortunately, my mom passed away last year, very sad event. Anyway so, they were my heroes, and they started Australia Zoo, so I was born and raised into wildlife, didn't have a big choice.
KING: Welcome back to
S.
IRWIN: These happened a couple of months ago, little female crocodile. You know, I blew it, and she went down, grabbed my leg, and gave me a bit of a rip. You know, I’ve got... That was the other day, and I’ve got a couple up my arm, here. I’ve got a few here and there in my head. You know, I’ve got a few around my head.
KING: OK, now, explain to me, and you’ve been, probably, injured a lot.
S.
IRWIN: Oh, I have, yeah.
KING: You ever knew Burt Hoss in Miami? He was a serpentarium guy. He fooled around with snakes all the time. And he rushed into the hospital every other month for venom.
S.
IRWIN: Yeah, now he’s only got three fingers left.
KING: That’s right! Why do you do this? I mean you must have fear.
S.
IRWIN: Um, yeah, yeah, jammed back in the back of my brain. I think everyone’s got a fear mechanism, but I try and keep it, you know, suppressed back there somewhere.
KING: So you’ve never been bit where you say I'm not going to do this anymore?
S.
IRWIN: No. No, I haven’t. You know, Larry, these aren’t, it’s not like these scars are trophies, mate. It’s like, they’re interesting, and it helps me to prompt, talk about conservation, that’s what it does. When you get a, when you take a hit and you get a scar, I've made a mistake. I’ve made a mistake. It’s never the animal’s fault.
KING: You don’t get mad at the animal?
S.
IRWIN: Never, no. Not at all. If you get close enough to get bitten, if that tarantula had sunk its fangs in, it was my fault. I knew it had fangs, I was mucking with it. You take the hit.
KING: In our remaining moments with Steve Irwin, we have invited Terri to join us. And Terri has brought a friend of hers. What is that?
TERRY IRWIN: This is a Burmese python that has an unusual color pattern.
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