What’s perhaps surprising is that Irwin, though controversial for his flamboyant hands-on approach to wildlife, quietly teamed with serious scientists and conservationists to make a genuine contribution to the systematic natural history of this enigmatic critter. The park was created by the Australian government as a living memorial. For more than a decade researchers have monitored the behavior and physiology of saltwater crocs in Queensland, mainly at the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, a 333,000-acre floral and faunal sanctuary on the Cape York Peninsula. The clean, bright sun has filtered a warm benediction down onto the bank, where Robert and Bindi their mother, Terri and a team of animal wranglers from the family-owned Australia Zoo are taking part in an extraordinary zoological study. A feral pig carcass was used to bait the trap, one of 17 set along this 30-mile stretch of the river. It’s late morning on the Wenlock and the odor of rotten meat hangs in the air. Irwin’s encounters with lethal animals ended in 2006, when a stingray’s barb pierced his heart while he was filming on the Great Barrier Reef. Perpetually clad in khaki shorts and hiking boots, the elder Irwin’s shtick-provocative, up-close interactions with wild animals and squeals of wonderment (“Crikey!”) at their magnificent deadliness-made him an international TV phenomenon. That’s so not true!”īindi and Robert are the offspring of Steve Irwin, the boisterous, can-do naturalist of “Crocodile Hunter” fame. “Here’s an animal that many people think is just a stupid, evil, ugly monster which kills people. An actor, singer, game show host and, last year, a People cover girl, she’s confirming Daisy’s gender by inserting a finger into its cloaca and feeling around for genitalia. Robert’s 16-year-old sister, Bindi, looks on solicitously. “I so admire the crocodile’s ability to kill with just its teeth. “The jaw pressure of the crocodile is incredible-3,000 pounds per square inch!”ĭaisy’s tail whips him to the right. “An awesome animal that roamed the primeval landscape for millions and millions of years.”ĭaisy’s sawtooth tail whips the prone boy to the left. “It’s an honor and a privilege to work with the largest living reptile and largest terrestrial predator on the planet,” Robert tells me in the singsong tone of his television-ready family. Fortunately, a blindfold, gaffer tape and a rope muzzle ensure the amity of this relationship. She’s being petted by 11-year-old Robert Irwin, who is stroking the lower third of her thrashing anatomy. But here is Daisy, a seven-foot Australian saltie on a grassy shore of the Wenlock River, as placid as a Pekingese. The saltwater crocodile is a great, stealthy, archaic beast that you wouldn’t expect to pacify with a little friendly tickle on the tail.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |