Hey, Mate! He’s Got a Way With Crocodiles

Nothing comes between Steve Irwin and his crocodiles--or any creature for that matter. Not even his own honeymoon. Irwin, the Australian on the popular cable TV show “The Crocodile Hunter” on Animal Planet Network, remembers the post-wedding action this way (you have to read with an accent, mate): “I got a phone call--’There’s this problem crocodile,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ll catch it.’ John Stainton, my best friend and the producer, is on the phone going, ‘I want to film it.’ So the crocodile was our honeymoon.”

Irwin reminisces about his June 1992 honeymoon with wife and co-star Terri: “ ‘Jump on its head,’ and she did, by crikey. Can you imagine? This beautiful Oregonian woman jumps on this 10-foot female crocodile’s head, and you know what? She hasn’t stopped. Crikey, what a life. Aren’t we lucky?”

On his show, Irwin, 37, shows his passion for his extended wildlife family. He coos over crocs and kraits--a placid but highly venomous snake.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” he’ll marvel, going nostril-to-nostril with a snake or squatting next to a crocodile. Sometimes the beauties try to bite or worse. That’s when they’re “naughty” . . . but still beautiful.

Irwin learned about animals from his mom, a naturalist, and dad, a herpetologist. By the time he was 9, and after going on hundreds of outings to relocate crocodiles, Irwin jumped his first freshwater crocodile while he and his dad were on a dingy on a billabong in northern Australia.

Question: You’re not involving your baby (Bindi, almost 1 year old) in your work yet, are you?

Answer: It’s too late, mate. She’s already in it. It’s genetics. We’ve got all these cute, cuddly animals--kangaroos and koalas--and her favorite animal is snakes. Terri’s boa constrictor, Rosie, is over 10 feet long, and she just loves Rosie. Oh, she just lights up.

Q: Does Rosie have free reign of the house?

A: Occasionally, like at night, she just cruises around. But she’s got a house that she lives in, in between times. Rosie does demonstrations out here at Australia Zoo.

Q: You don’t have too many visitors in the house, do you?

A: No, mate. They’re too scared to come over.

Q: Does anything scare you? Given the nature of your work, it doesn’t look like it.

A: I’ll tell you what--I was really scared when I got married.

Q: You’re joking, right?

A: Oh, no. I’m dead serious, mate. Sharks and crocs are like a walk in the park compared to getting married. I was standing at the altar just sweating, but we got through it and it was a beautiful thing.

Q: Seriously, does your work ever concern you?

A: You know, my life has been spent with what would be classified as dangerous animals. What looks dangerous and highly volatile in actual fact is not quite as bad as it looks. My dad taught me this very special thing early in my life: “Steven, if you’re going to deal with these animals, leave your ego at home.” My apprenticeship has been 37 years in the making and I’m still learning, mate, every day.

Q: What on-the-job lesson have you learned recently?

A: The most recent thing I learned was whipper snipping.

Q: What is it?

A: You know weed whackers? OK. We call them whipper snippers. So I’m in there whipper-snipping with this big ol’ problem croc named Agro, 15 feet in length and around 600 kilos [1,320 pounds] and really defensive when I go into his territory because he’s got three beautiful girls.

The workplace health and safety people [in Australia] told me by law you have to wear safety glasses. I said, “I can’t with these dangerous crocodiles because unless I’ve got 100% vision, I’ll end up dead.” I put on these stupid safety glasses and they filled up with sweat. Agro went “whack”--he struck at me, hit right in between my legs. He grabbed hold of my boot and now he’s pulling me back in the water to kill me.

Luckily enough, the whipper snipper’s still going so I hit him in the side with it which irritated him enough so that he pulled the whipper snipper back into the water and killed it, which gave me enough time to run out of the way.

Q: So the lesson you learned is to--

A: Take two whipper snippers. That way he’ll hear one vibration and go at that while I come in from behind and start with the snipping until I think he’s going to come back over to me. Play team tag. You know, this crocodile has killed two lawn mowers. He’s such a naughty boy. However, I really need to impress on you that that was my mistake. I choose to work with wildlife and I know what I’m up against before I go in there. So that was my fault. I can’t stress that enough. Sharks, crocs, snakes and spiders, they’re not evil, ugly monsters out there lurking under rocks and in waterways waiting to kill people. You actually have to go into their territory to get hurt.

Q: Is there any animal that you’re not comfortable with?

A: The animal that I do have problems with--and it’s not that I hate them or anything--but the animal that I show a lot of respect and still have a lot of problems with is parrots. Crikey, I don’t know what it is, but parrots have got to bite me.

* The daily “Croc Files” for children premieres June 28, noon-12:30 p.m. on Animal Planet Network.

* Whatever Works runs every Monday. Send e-mail to socalliving@latimes.com.