My Top 5 Steve Irwin moments

I am in a state of shock now. I can’t believe that my favourite, favourite naturalist and TV personality Steve ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ Irwin is no more. I read the news just now. He died today doing what he did best, chasing his life’s passion of being with nature and wildlife. The stingray that killed him would never know how much Steve did for the cause of conservation and wildlife.

Steve single-handedly turned public opinion towards nature conservation and preservation of wildlife all around the world right from Australia to Asia to America.

My top 5 Steve Irwin moments are:

• His taking over of Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park and running it as Australia Zoo in 1991.
• Marriage to Terri in 1992 – an equally motivated and champion naturalist.
• The Crocodile Hunter television series that changed how people looked at nature and wildlife.
• When he carried his infant son Bob within a meter of a huge crocodile in 1992. The act almost threatened him with legal actions following a huge public outcry accusing him of child abuse.However, he maintained that the child was never in danger and his wife supported him too.
• His death today by a stingray while on an underwater shoot! Fatal attacks by stingrays are virtually unheard of, so for an expert like Steve Irwin to get killed by a stingray is amazingly surprising for me.

My top 5 Steve Irwin television moments are:

5. His trip to the bazaars of Taiwan where animal products are sold as medicine and the manner which he explained the horror behind it without making it seem very bad. Maybe he did it knowing that children would be affected if he started narrating the pain and the horror those animals have to go through. In the same time, he got his message through the adults. He probably risked personal safety filming those shops.

4. Getting his son Bob that close to the croc while feeding it a dead chicken. Phew!

3. Getting too close to a wild Asiatic elephant in Thailand in the dense jungle groove. He knew that the elephant could outrun him in the groove and trample him in no time. He was completely exposed; and there were two of them there!

2. All his croc-wrestling moments. All of them. I can’t pick up one here.

1. This is the best. Being ‘kissed’ by a Fierce Snake regarded as the most venomous (in terms of potency) of all land snakes in the world. The scene left me breathless!

We need more Steves in this world.