‘ My fingers clamped around the croc’s thick neck and my chin slammed into its bony head as my chest landed on its back and my legs wrapped around the base of the tail. With eyes wide open I was being thrashed around in the muddy water. I saw pulses of light as I rolled over and over. There’s no way I was letting go and I hung on for grim death.’
The glowing afternoon sun had already dropped below the horizon, leaving the rugged landscape of the outback under a heavy veil of darkness. When most people would venture back to their houses in preparation for dinner, nine-year-old Steve Irwin was out under the mercy of the cruel Australian outback, attempting his first crocodile capture.
Rarely seen without dirt under his fingernails or dressed in anything apart from his famous khaki uniform, Irwin’s ‘Aussie’ boyish good looks, larger-than-life personality and unique ability to capture the oldest prehistoric dinosaur of our time, has ultimately earned him the legendry title ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ amongst loyal fans around the world.
The extraordinary life of crocodile legend Steve Irwin has expertly been captured within his one hundred and forty-four page autobiography, appropriately entitled ‘The Crocodile Hunter’. Throughout the book, Steve recounts his most memorable moments growing up surrounded by wildlife, which have ultimately contributed to the dedication he possesses towards wildlife today, from receiving his first python at six years of age, to playing cops and robbers with his best friends, a pet emu, brolga and curlew,
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The American Crocodile! Show doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale! How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in With gently smiling jaws! !" Table of Contents"H Introduction "H Evolution"H Family"H Subfamily"H Anatomy"H Differences between the crocodile and alligator"H Salinity ...
Born in Essendon, on February 22, 1962 to keen naturalists and herpetologists, Bob and Lyn Irwin, Steve began to demonstrate such personal traits of passion and dedication towards wildlife and environmental conservation from an early age. The majority of Steve’s childhood was filled with numerous adventures and countless animal encounters, from spotting and capturing, to basically living and breathing the outback. Through years of watching his father efficiently work through the process of capturing one of the most dangerous animals in Australia, almost as routinely as if he were about to sit down for a cup of coffee, Steve’s fascination and knowledge developed, and soon he found his dad teaching him the Irwin technique of catching a crocodile he would grow up to know so well.
Whilst recounting his childhood, Steve chooses to portray himself as a naive adolescent, which he ultimately achieves by including such self-discourses to successfully describe his inexperience. He reputably uses terms such as, ‘I could feel the pride and adrenalin building”, to portray his excitable feelings he would often get as an innocent child trying to impress his dad.
As a mean of housing their extensive collection of reptiles and various other species, Bob and Lyn decided to pursue their life-changing dream and establish a wildlife sanctuary on the Sunshine Coast. According to Steve, this is when he and his dad ‘shared the most marvellous adventures’, travelling the most remote areas of the Australian wilderness for weeks at a time, observing and catching crocodiles, snakes and lizards for the family park. Taking almost a year of ‘hard yakka’, the Beerwah Reptile Park, now known as Australia Zoo, was completed and today is proudly referred to as the most popular private zoological park in Australia.
As Steve grew, so did his unique passion for animals. The slaughter and unwarranted hatred of the crocodile species had ultimately become his driven force. Now entirely capable of trapping and relocating crocodile’s solo, Steve spent most of his late teens working under the East Coast Crocodile Management Programme, relocating rogue or problem crocodiles from populated areas for weeks at a time. Steve’s believes that if he doesn’t capture problem crocodiles and alleviate the potential conflict, “the entire ecosystem will corrode from the removal of the apex predator.” To effectively describe his transition from an eager juvenile growing up in the family park, to an educated young adult, Steve attempts to explain his actions in relation to wildlife and in addition, the unusual behaviours of various species in order to give the audience a deeper understanding as well as subtlety portraying the wide-range of knowledge he has acquired over time.
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A brief description of the phylum and their classes. By Ashley Ellison I. Acanthocephalan-any of an intestinal worms lacking a digestive tract and having a proboscis bearing rows of thorn like hooks II. Annelids- any of roundish, wormlike animals having long, segmented bodies, a brain and ventral nerve cord, and a closed circulatory system, including polychaetes, oligochaetes, and leeches A. ...
Irwin’s unique ability to attract an audience who are predominantly ‘new’ to environmentalism and furthermore change their attitudes towards wildlife and the environment is portrayed through his original language choice, utilised to reflect his seemingly outrageous personality. By skilfully incorporating many opinions throughout the book, Steve effectively positions the audience in a prejudice environment, in attempt to draw emotions of anger and remorse in regards to how Australia as a whole treats their crocodiles, who in Steve Irwin’s opinion, ‘Are the kings of Australian fauna’.
Steve’s ever-growing fame due to his contribution to society has to a great extent, raised awareness of the present problem concerning the ever-declining number of animal species. His passion for wildlife is, as Steve describes, ‘my elixir of life’, and declares he will, ‘die defending animals that other’s deem dangerous and threatening.’ A sample of Steve’s work involves maintaining the environment for future generations, preserving individual species and educating people on a more environmentally responsible lifestyle.
‘The park is our base and from here we’re saving the world – from Beerwah’
