The Steve Irwin Standard

No single person did more to change how the world sees crocodiles than Steve Irwin. To talk about being croc wise without talking about him would be to miss the heart of the matter, because Steve’s entire life was the argument this book is making, lived out loud in front of a global audience. But a standard is bigger than one man. Steve gave it a face the whole world knows. Standing with him, on several continents and with far less light on them, is a whole lineage doing the same work, and part of being croc wise is learning their names too.

Who he was

Stephen Robert Irwin (1962–2006) grew up among reptiles at his family’s small wildlife park in Queensland, taught about crocodiles from boyhood by his father, Bob Irwin. He took over the park, expanded it into Australia Zoo, and through the television series The Crocodile Hunter became one of the most recognisable people on the planet: the khaki-clad Australian with the boundless enthusiasm, crouched beside animals most people would run from, shouting “Crikey!” with undisguised joy. He meant it. He died in 2006 in an accident while filming on the Great Barrier Reef. The whole world mourned him as few wildlife figures ever have, and his family (Terri, Bindi and Robert), along with the people who worked beside him like his longtime friend Wes Mannion, carry his work forward to this day.