Wheels turning…SDMB’s King of the Jungle - now, that would be some fun TV viewing. Australia, here we come! I’m right behind you, Q.E.D.!
About 30 feet behind you, that is. :::turns around::: Hey! Where did everyone else go?! 
The question is better stated as, “Would you get within 20 feet of one holding your one month old son for the sake of publicity?”.
I don’t believe the kid was in any danger but this garbage about teaching the kid safety is just that, garbage. He used his kid to draw publicity and is now pissed because it’s the wrong type.
Ya’ll have fun, keep in touch. You know, they got spiders there that would eat tarantulas for snacks. Me, I got enough to worry about with this years crop of ice snakes.
(bolding mine)
Just following up on the “mistakes happen, no matter how skilled you are” line. I don’t remember any attention when they did something similar with the last baby, but then maybe it wasn’t as much of a show that time.
Just for publicity? No. But, I honestly don’t think publicity was the reason Steve Irwin did what he did.
Today I saw a clip on CNN in which Mr. Irwin said “People could say that I’m a bad parent if I don’t teach my children to be crock-savvy.”
Is it a common occurence for crocodiles to turn up uninvited in Australian nurseries? If it is, he may have a point.
Of course, it’s more likely that his brain has been cooked from standing under those hot lights all day.
I live near allegators and they are definitely a threat on dry land. A friend of mine (a full-grown, strapping man) barely outran an allegator (on dry land) that saw him from afar and chased him. Are crocs totally different in that respect?
I’ve always been led to believe that crocodiles are actually more agressive and dangerous than alligators.
Crocs are also pretty fast on land, 10.5 mile per hour running speed, but more specifically a lunge speed of up to 12 meters per second. In other words, it would take a quarter of a second for an adult croc to move its own bodylenght.
Animal Planet has released a statement saying they are not impressed and also have a link up for fans to discuss it.
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/crochunter/crochunter.html
To be fair, it was a small ball python and Bindi had it sitting in her lap, and it was an appropriate size snake for a child her size to be holding. And she clearly was knowledgeable about how to handle snakes; she probably learned it from Terri, who’s got a truly spectacular pet boa (if the footage of her washing dishes with her snake reclining on her shoulders is any indication).
Terri is as bad as Steve, though – she had a pet cougar growing up, for heaven’s sake. I don’t see her restraining him; if anything, she probably eggs him on to be even crazier than he might be on his own.
Thanks for the link, Iteki.
I knew that Animal Planet would have to do some spin control - but I still believe he knew what he was doing. I’ve commented as to how many parents don’t buckle their children into carseats, and have yet to receive one response. So - it is what it is, I suppose. Let’s all remember to not dangle our children in front of crocodiles, that’s the important thing!
Blonde, I think this is the equivalent of Mario Andretti taking his children in the car during the Indy 500 and not buckling them into a carseat. It’s stupid even if the parent is an expert.
Again, this a completely different situation. Your analogy fails because Mario knows that an Indy race is inherently dangerous and uncontrollable. Steve, on the other hand, was undoubtedly certain that the situation was as completely under his control as was possible. Your example is more like Steve allowing his baby to play with a full-grown croc unsupervised, something he would never (I hope!) do.
There is no such thing as completely under control when you’re working with a predator that isn’t under sedation. I don’t care if you’re Pan, Lord of Nature, himself. Animals are unpredictable.
And this is why the majority of people taken by crocodiles are tourists. Australians don’t get much formal training about what to do with crocodiles, but every couple of months there’s a story about some tourist who figured that “something that big couldn’t possible move very fast at all” and went up close for a look. The regularity of this sort of story tends to give you the idea: if you see a crocodile, keep well away.
Well, I have to ask, what other reasons are there for holding your one month old baby while feeding a croc in front of an audience and while it is being filmed?
Oh, I don’t know. A father including his son in the one thing he enjoys doing most of all, maybe?
like The Great Wallendas
Who are the Great Wallendas?
You’ve never heard of the Flying Wallendas? I feel old.
There was even a TV movie about them, starring Lloyd Bridges.