Crocodile Hunter died the way he lived
The world is darker this week after the death of a great environmental conservationist who left the world too soon.
His name was Steve Irwin, but most people on the river and around the world knew him as the Crocodile Hunter.
The khaki-wearing Australian wildlife advocate TV star died after a stingray's barb pierced his chest while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. Irwin, 44, was only the third Australian known to have died this way.
Irwin was for all the world to see a big kid with a big grin fascinated by the animal world which was our world not so very long ago.
Now, in the name of progress, most of the furry and scaly and feathered creatures that roamed the Earth have been pushed to its edges and sometimes to the edge of extinction. Irwin made it his life's work to prevent this and to show us animals still have a place in this world. And to show us we have a duty as citizens of this planet to protect these creatures, fuzzy or scaly - or both.
The Crocodile Hunter was no newcomer to getting down and dirty with the wildest of this world's wildlife. Wrestling crocs, swimming with sharks, running with cheetahs, the guy did it all. He was given a python as a pet on his sixth birthday. By nine, he was wrestling crocodiles. He ran his own zoo before he was 30.
He didn't preach to people about the environment. He shared his immense excitement for the natural world with millions - and millions listened because his excitement about the animal world was uplifting.
Here on the Miramichi, we live in a part of the world where a day in the woods will show you a multitude of wildlife. But how often does the average person get a chance to walk through our woods?
We live in a part of the world where moose and deer and skunks and beavers fill the forests around our community, but we see these creatures so rarely people still pull over onto the side of the road to look at them if they happen to emerge briefly. But Irwin brought the wonders of the animal world to our livingrooms.
"My husband has a unique ability to jump through the TV screen and into your lounge," his wife Terri said recently. "He grabs you and drags you into the wild so you share his wonder and excitement."
Irwin talked about the possibility of dying once in an interview.
"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."
Irwin was passionate, he was unconventional and he was oh so very real. He died the way he lived and he leaves the world a much poorer place.
His name was Steve Irwin, but most people on the river and around the world knew him as the Crocodile Hunter.
The khaki-wearing Australian wildlife advocate TV star died after a stingray's barb pierced his chest while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. Irwin, 44, was only the third Australian known to have died this way.
Irwin was for all the world to see a big kid with a big grin fascinated by the animal world which was our world not so very long ago.
Now, in the name of progress, most of the furry and scaly and feathered creatures that roamed the Earth have been pushed to its edges and sometimes to the edge of extinction. Irwin made it his life's work to prevent this and to show us animals still have a place in this world. And to show us we have a duty as citizens of this planet to protect these creatures, fuzzy or scaly - or both.
The Crocodile Hunter was no newcomer to getting down and dirty with the wildest of this world's wildlife. Wrestling crocs, swimming with sharks, running with cheetahs, the guy did it all. He was given a python as a pet on his sixth birthday. By nine, he was wrestling crocodiles. He ran his own zoo before he was 30.
He didn't preach to people about the environment. He shared his immense excitement for the natural world with millions - and millions listened because his excitement about the animal world was uplifting.
Here on the Miramichi, we live in a part of the world where a day in the woods will show you a multitude of wildlife. But how often does the average person get a chance to walk through our woods?
We live in a part of the world where moose and deer and skunks and beavers fill the forests around our community, but we see these creatures so rarely people still pull over onto the side of the road to look at them if they happen to emerge briefly. But Irwin brought the wonders of the animal world to our livingrooms.
"My husband has a unique ability to jump through the TV screen and into your lounge," his wife Terri said recently. "He grabs you and drags you into the wild so you share his wonder and excitement."
Irwin talked about the possibility of dying once in an interview.
"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."
Irwin was passionate, he was unconventional and he was oh so very real. He died the way he lived and he leaves the world a much poorer place.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 2:45 PM
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