Reptile News

Steve Irwin:

Thanks for all you have contributed to my world.

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the life of Steve Irwin and the impact he had on me early in this hobby. I began keeping Ball Pythons in 1991, before that I always had a frog or lizard and the occasional king snake as pets. 1991 also marked the year that I met my wife. She did not share my love for reptiles from the beginning and they basically creeped her out! After some years she began to adjust to our roommates but never appreciated their qualities.

Then came The Discovery Channel and this highly excited guy they called the Croc Hunter. My first thought when I heard the name was amazement at the Discovery Channel for being brave enough to broadcast on mainstream TV someone who would hunt crocodiles.

Never in my life did I expect to see someone swimming with crocodiles in their natural environment without any protection let alone bare-handedly catching them. As time went on and my wife and I made the Croc Hunter part of our TV routine, we came to appreciate Mr. Irwins special abilities and love for nature. He had a way of gluing you to the TV and making you watch. He was like candy for nature conservation. You only wanted a taste but then you could never stop at just one episode. We began watching the marathons that went on for hours.

With each passing show, my wife and I learned an enormous amount about the natural world around us and what it has to offer. I also noticed that my wife began to appreciate more my reptilian friends. Steve was bridging the gap! I have to thank him for my hobby and the ability to have more than one snake in our house let alone a breeding facility. He showed the world that reptiles are unique and exciting creatures that deserve just as big a spot in the world as our more familiar and comfortable mammalian friends.

Through the late nineties and early into this decade, it was common to hear the phrase Crikey! being yelled out while kids played in the street. In fact, it was common to hear it yelled out in our house for fun. Never did I capture the true spirit or energy that only Steve could produce but I fancied myself a rather good imitator. Imitation was definitely a COMPLEMENT here. He energized the viewing public with each new episode and without our knowledge, taught us a thing or two and made us care more.

Currently, I am starting a small business focused on Beautiful Ball Pythons (I use the term beautiful because Steve taught it to me all those years on TV) that has great potential because of the tireless work that Steve Irwin did. Prior to his emergence on channels like Discovery and Animal Planet, and his many guest appearance on mainstream TV shows, it was much more difficult to find people that appreciated these snakes qualities now they are everywhere. We still have work to do in educating the public and I try every chance I get with my sons friends and their families, not at the level that Steve could but with his example in mind. I think I even caught myself saying Crikey just last week to ensure the kids were listening. All instantly laughed and it spread smiles across their faces. Thanks Steve!

Now I find myself watching TV and the news is horrible. The TV friend that I watched for all those years, his exploits both positive and negative, the growth of his zoo and his family, with his excitement and enthusiasm, has been taken from us. I can only begin to imagine what his family is experiencing and send them my condolences and heartfelt sorrow for their loss. I hope that some day his children will be able to understand how many lives their father touched. It will not make it better for them but hopefully it will ease some of their pain to know that his death was not in vain. It was rather an unexpected and terrible accident that is always a possibility when working with wild creatures. It is sad and left the us without our strongest ambassador for the natural world.

I have gone over in my mind many times what I wanted to say to the news media in general about their coverage of these events. All I will ask is that they focus on all of the positive and not the very few negatives that we have seen.

My sincere sorrow goes out to his family at this time and I would ask all of you to consider how Steve Irwin touched your life while on TV and to try to spread his message of conservation and wonderment for the natural world.

We lost a great individual and friend in the reptile world and one that will not be forgotten. I heard Discovery Channel is setting up a few funds in Steves name and I encourage each of you to look into them. I also noticed on the Australian Zoo website that you can adopt one of the zoo residents and feel that this would be a great way to show your support for his lifes work. I plan to.

Regards

Dan Herrera

www.thesnakecompany.com