The Crocodile Hunter guy is Nuts!

[bernse]

Subject line says it. What is it with this guy? I mean he appears to be a nice enough guy, but jeezus christ does he have a death wish? This guy is playing around and handling obviously pissed off poisonous snakes like they are a garter snake. I especially like how he always wears the same kahki outfit. The man is underwater with sharks and he is still wearing it!.

Don't get me wrong, I love the show and I would enjoy sitting down and have a beer with 'ol Steve-o , but MAN! What the hell is this guys insurance policy premium?

[Ell]

In Australia this guy is a joke.

No one takes him seriously

[imthjckaz]

Steve Irwin is not nuts, he's just got big ones.
Besides he's a trained herpetologist(sp?), well a reptile guy, and it looks like he's havin' fun, so let him to what makes him happy.

[imthjckaz]

A...that should be : let him do what makes him happy.


And his wife is cute too.

[dropzone]

Originally posted by imthjckaz
Steve Irwin is not nuts, he's just got big ones.

Big, cast iron ones. But the first time I saw him he was picking up a black mamba by the tail. I had heard all the stories about this snake, some of which were exagerated, and I'm thinking "Is this one of the species strong enough to turn completely around and bite him?" Which is where his training would help. But he's still totally nuts. As is his cameraperson.

Originally posted by Ell
In Australia this guy is a joke.
No one takes him seriously

We don't take him "seriously" up here, either, if you compare him with, say, Mother Theresa. But he's a big improvement on Jack Hanna screaming like a girl when some animal touches him.

[Inky-]

I'm just curious if I'm the only person who finds themselves rooting for the snake?

Seriously, say your a bull snake minding your own ectothermic business --a bit of sun basking, a nice tasty harvest mouse for lunch, perhaps a nice skin molt this afternoon if the mood strikes-- when suddenly this noisy, crazy, bug-eyed aussie has you by the tail. Screaming "What a beauty!!" and "look'it 'em strike!".

Eegad!

[Lok]

He is not crazy. Just really, really enthusiastic. If he wasn't really good at what he does, he would have been dead years ago.

[mbh]

He is a trained herpetologist.
He is the son of a trained herpetologist.
He's had lots of practice staying away from the sharp ends of the critters.

[Emperor Penguin]

[quote]Originally posted by dropzone

But he's a big improvement on Jack Hanna screaming like a girl when some animal touches him.

Woo.

That is the funniest mental image I've had in a good long while.

I think I ruptured something.

Gods...


And as I minor hijack, has anybody seen the commercial he did for Fed-Ex? (I think that's the company, but I can't remember exactly. My mind is a bit fuzzy.)

[Sauron]

Originally posted by Corvus


And as I minor hijack, has anybody seen the commercial he did for Fed-Ex? (I think that's the company, but I can't remember exactly. My mind is a bit fuzzy.)

Yep. FedEx commercial. I LOVE that spot.

I really enjoy Irwin's shows. I've always been fascinated by snakes, anyway. My wife thinks the man is certifiable. It always gives me a queasy feeling in my stomach when he's holding a snake and talking to the camera, and then he gets quiet and still as the snake starts to do something or alters its posture somewhat. I trust the guy enough to realize that he's getting nervous, and since he's obviously very comfortable around snakes most of the time, that makes ME nervous.

NBC in the States ran a prime-time special with him last night (2/12) as he tracked some of Africa's deadliest snakes. You could not pay me enough money to grab a black mamba or a puff adder by the tail.

Anybody know how many times Steve's been bitten?

[Pyrrho12]

The advert they have for The Crocodile Hunter on the Japanese Discovery channel is hillarious. They cut from scenes of Steve and Terri together, with romantic music playing in the background, to scenes of Steve getting attacked by every kind of creature imaginable.

My favorite has to be the time he was mauled by a beaver...

I have to agree with mbh and Lok. If he wasn't good at his job, he'd be dead by now. On one episode I remember him explaining why they couldn't use tranquilizer darts on crocodiles... then walking up to this enormous monster of a reptile and hog-tying it.

Terri is pretty special too. When I watch the show, I often think how lucky Steve is to have met a woman who not only shares his passion in life, but also his tolerance for pain and ability to stop bleeding!

http://www.crocodilehunter.com/index1.htm

[TroubleAgain]

Originally posted by dropzone
But he's a big improvement on Jack Hanna screaming like a girl when some animal touches him.

Um, yeah. Jack Hanna gets on my nerves. For an zoo guy, he's pretty wimpy.

Originally posted by Corvus
And as I minor hijack, has anybody seen the commercial he did for Fed-Ex? (I think that's the company, but I can't remember exactly. My mind is a bit fuzzy.)

Yes, I saw it. It was FedEx and I loved it. He's also got a cameo in the new Dr. Doolittle movie with Eddie Murphy.

Originally posted by mbh
He's had lots of practice staying away from the sharp ends of the critters.

Yeah, usually, but did you hear about him getting chomped by a croc last month? Got him some lovely stitches in his leg, he did!

[Feynn]

If I am chammel surfing and catch Steve doing his thing I just have to stop and see what kind of animal he is pissing off at the moment.

He makes nature interesting while Jack Hanna... zzzzzzzzz.

I love the Fed Ex advert. Too funny.

[Bboy]

Have any of you seen the action figure yet?

I was in Toys-R-Us a few weeks ago, and there he was immortalized in plastic, sharing a blister pack with a plastic shark. (Whot ah BEAUTY!) Why a shark instead of a Croc', I do not know.

In big letters, splashed across the package: KREIKEY, I TALK!
And with a cutout to give access to the push button on his tummy, I just could not resist...

"With one boite, He coo'd've taiken moy hend [i]ROIT OFF!"

[Sauron]

Originally posted by Sauron

Anybody know how many times Steve's been bitten?

Well, since no one is gonna answer my question, I'll answer it myself. Sheesh.

I checked out the Crocodile Hunter section of the Animal Planet Web site. Believe it or not, Steve Irwin has never been bitten by a venomous snake. He has been bitten, gored, stung, clawed, etc. by a variety of other wildlife, but never by a venomous snake.

[bernse]

I am sure this guy knows what he is doing, or (as has been mentioned before) he would surely be dead by now. He has got to have one of the best shows on TV. I still think he has to be just a tad nuts to take all the risks he does. Did you folks see him with that Egyptian Cobra? This thing is climbing up a tree to get away from him and he is just pulling on its tail. The "growling" noise this thing was making is one of those sounds that would make anyone (or any animal) stop in its tracks even if they didn't know what it was.

Oh, he's getting a little cranky. But let me show you how beautiful he is....Continues to drag him along the ground for 2 more minutes. Snake growling/hissing/roaring the whole time....attempting to strike Steve and the camera man several times.

[evilskippy]

I disagree. his cameraman is not NEARLY as nuts a Steve is. The camera man is always the first to run like hell when ever the beast du jour starts getting agitated. And I noticed he does ALOT of zoom shots. With Steve antagonizing the "most feared snake in the world" I don't blame him.

[Jonathan Chance]

Originally posted by Ell
In Australia this guy is a joke.

No one takes him seriously

I've been waiting AGES to say this...

The reason we're impressed by Steve and Australians aren't is because we in the US had the good sense to launch our "Kill everything that can kill us on this entire continent" campaign early in the game.

Why you guys didn't launch a similar campaign is beyond me. Sort of like rugby or something.

And Steve Irwin is the man!

[Tiburon]

I rather like Steve. He clearly likes what he's doing.

The craziest thing I saw was an episode where Steve and his wife had hung this animal carcass (I think it was a chicken) over the water of a river (from a branch) because then a female croc would lift up and eat the chicken from the rope on which it was hanging. So it's pitch black night and they go out in a rowboat to see if the chicken is gone and to try to catch a glimpse of the croc. He goes up to the tree branch and sure enough, rope is snipped and the chicken is gone so they know the croc ate it after it got dark. WELL...then Steve spots a snake in a branch and promptly breaks off the branch with the snake on it and starts talking about it to the camera. Somehow something went wacky with the snake or they bumped a branch - his wife, Terry, goes PLOP, right into the river. She's about ready to scream bloody murder because there's some big mama croc in the water - and her hubby says, "Don't swim for the shore!! That's where the croc will expect you!" Jesus.

I love the FedEx commercial, too.

Tibs.

[DaveX]

Why is he having the anti-venom flown over from the U.S.? The anti-venom is made from the actual venom of the snake, so why would he want anti-venom from an eastern diamondback rattler, when he has been bitten by, lets say, an Australian common brown?

[Bboy]

I checked out the Crocodile Hunter section of the Animal Planet Web site. Believe it or not, Steve Irwin has never been bitten by a venomous snake. He has been bitten, gored, stung, clawed, etc. by a variety of other wildlife, but never by a venomous snake.

Ooh...Hold the phone a sec on that one Sauron.
The web site is providing erroneous information. Maybe they are referring only to the really deadly snakes, or maybe they are just not up to date.
I saw one of those hilarious outtake-compilation episodes where he misidentified some small snake as nonpoisonous, and was, as usual, yapping about it whilst dangling the little 'beauty' extra close to his face.
The 'nawghty boy' suddenly lunged, and WHECK! nipped our hero on the upper lip, and within minutes his face swelled up like a carcass bloating in the sun, by jing!

What are the odds that Steve would eventually get bitten?
About the same that a camera be rolling at the time.

The snake on this particular episode was only mildly venomous, and Steve only required a quick shot of something like Benadryl to get the swelling to go down. No antivenin was necessary.
How do thy sigh it daun Unduh? "Wallaby Darned!"

[Sengkelat]

Originally posted by Jonathan Chance


I've been waiting AGES to say this...

The reason we're impressed by Steve and Australians aren't is because we in the US had the good sense to launch our "Kill everything that can kill us on this entire continent" campaign early in the game.

Why you guys didn't launch a similar campaign is beyond me.

Well, we still have mountain lions and various snakes, the brown recluse spider, and a bear or two. Australia is blessed with a rich variety of dangerous creatures, and I rather envy them. Killing off all the creatures that can harm humans isn't a particularly noble goal, in my books.

As for Steve Irwin, I don't think he's nuts. He just knows what will keep people watching, and that's sensationalistic stunts. And having all those people watching, he can use his show as a platform to teach people how various animals are important to the ecosystem as a whole and why we shouldn't just kill off all the species that are dangerous. Of course, he doesn't do much of that.

In fact, Steve's platform on conservation is either overly idealistic or plain ignorant. He's completely against "sustainable use", where animals can be harvested from the wild in a responsible, sustainable fashion, with the proceeds going partly towards their conservation in the wild. Steve has gone as far as calling serious conservation workers "nazis" because of their support for sustainable use. Now, I'm not that keen on animals being killed, but one only has to compare the conservation programs for alligator sinensis and crocodylus porosus. C. porosus has managed harvests, the people who own the land the crocs live on are making money off them, and the crocodile population has rebounded hugely. A. sinensis has complete protection, which is what Steve favors, and there are only about 100 of them left in the wild. Sustainable use works, and there's no joy in having a legally protected species that's soon going to be extinct. So Steve Irwin might well be doing more harm than good.

Still, he's sort of fun to watch. And yes, when I watch the Crocodile Hunter, I'm definitely rooting for the crocs.

[Bboy]

Sengkelat said:
As for Steve Irwin, I don't think he's nuts. He just knows what will keep people watching, and that's sensationalistic stunts.

Ah, like Jerry Springer, only much more palatable.

The Fedex thing is cute, but I kinda liked the Foster's commercials better.
Ya know: FOSTUHS...Austrayyyl-yun fu'Beeeh.

[big_yellow_kingswood]

Sengkelat

Well, we still have mountain lions and various snakes, the brown recluse spider, and a bear or two. Australia is blessed with a rich variety of dangerous creatures, and I rather envy them. Killing off all the creatures that can harm humans isn't a particularly noble goal, in my books.

Damn straight. We figure that anyone stupid enough to want to play with any of these things deserves whatever they get, up to and including death. Why kill off an entire species just because some people are stupid? Besides, if we killed off everything in this country that could kill you we'd have nothing left*

And when Ell said that no one here takes him seriously, it wasn't in the "this guy's a joker" sense. No TV station actually carries his show because it died in the arse ratings wise. When is was on TV here it was on at 1:30 on a tuesday afternoon or something.


*Except maybe some sheep.

[Whammo]

Originally posted by dropzone
he's a big improvement on Jack Hanna screaming like a girl when some animal touches him.

Drop, thats the funniest thing I've read in 2 weeks.. made me throw my head back and laugh! [homer]...its funny cause its true...[/homer]

as an amature herpetologist and someone with nearly, almost, so close to, but never will have a biology degree, but has a father that does and who himself just about acquired one before deciding never again to set foot on a college campus, I agree... the man knows his stuff, if not playing up the (austrailian) bit a bit hammy. He knows the aggressions of particular species and can gauge the personalities and temperments of individual herps. Something only years of experience can tell.

[Phobos]

Steve Irwin is not crazy, he just plays it on TV. Gotta love his enthusiasm. Makes me reconsider my desk job.

Hanna is the anti-Irwin.

Phobos factoid: I briefly met Hanna once while working at a bookstore where he was doing a book signing.