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?
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.
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.
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.
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!”.
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.)
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.
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!
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 ROIT OFF!"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
