Google is honouring Steve Irwin, the ‘Crocodile Hunter,’ on his 57th birth anniversary with a doodle, showing the Australian wildlife conservationist exploring the great outdoors, holding a crocodile and hanging out with his wife Terri and kids Bindi and Robert.
Wildlife conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin inherited a love of large reptiles early on in life and shared it with the world through his work at the Australia Zoo and his popular TV series ‘The Crocodile Hunter.’ Irwin and his family dedicated their lives to the preservation and appreciation of the earth’s wildlife and wild places.
Born in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, on this day in 1962, Irwin was raised by Lyn and Bob Irwin, who gave him an eleven-foot python for his sixth birthday.
He named the snake Fred. During the early 1970s, the Irwins moved to the Sunshine Coast in the Australian State of Queensland and opened Beerwah Reptile Park.
Learning to wrestle crocodiles since the age of nine, Irwin volunteered with Queensland’s East Coast Crocodile Management Program, helping to capture and relocate endangered saltwater crocodiles – the largest of all living reptiles – to protect them from being harmed.
He was involved in all aspects of managing his family’s park, which was renamed Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, and eventually the Australia Zoo.
Irwin died on September 4, 2006, after a stingray’s serrated barb pierced his heart while he was filming underwater off Australia’s coast.
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