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!"
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.
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.
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.