“Crocodile Hunter!” This sounds like a four-year-old boy’s adventure game, chasing make-believe man-eating crocs around the back yard. For Steve Irwin, though, he is the “Crocodile Hunter,” a born and bred Australian whose life work is to travel around the world saving animals whose lives have become endangered. His adventures are like nothing we encounter in our day-to-day activities; it seems he is always mixed up with some 16-foot crocodile and it’s death roll.
“Crocodile Hunter” usually airs on Animal Planet, but this week, NBC brought its regular viewers a glimpse at this Australian adventurer. For one short hour, audiences were swept away from the comfort of their living room couches and in to the world of the Australian outback. It was exciting. The show started out with quick scenes of Steve’s encounters with wild animals, everything from snakes to crocodiles, to wild birds and kangaroos. It seems that the “Crocodile Hunter” does not limit himself to just the deadly crocs.
This man is a dedicated animal lover. Not your typical everyday dog and gerbil animal lover, this guy actually loves reptiles. And he loves his job, too. Protecting of these reptiles, as gross and dangerous as it sounds, is almost endearing. His hero is his father, he told viewers this at the beginning of the show, and his sidekick is his wife. How sweet. So, armed with the knowledge he learned from his father and with the help his trusty sidekick, Steve goes out into the world and saves dangerous wild animals most of us could never imagine going near.
On NBC’s special, one of his greatest challenges was saving a Black Anther snake in the heart of Kenya. This snake is one of the most deadly in the entire world and even though Steve tells each one of us, “If she had gotten my head it would’ve popped,” he also says he would cry his guts out to save his snakes. Talk about dedication.
Steve is a real life Crocodile Dundee. His adventures are caught on tape and brought into your living room. It is all narrated with his sweet Australian accent and includes nice bits of educational information. For example, did you know there are no external ways to tell the sex of a crocodile and that the emu is that second largest bird in world (what do you suppose the first largest bird is)?
NBC’s “Crocodile Hunter” special was action-packed, filled with suspense, thrill and lots and lots of reptiles (though we did get a break to see a very cute kangaroo in distress). The show had everything needed in a special, from the greatest moments in “Crocodile Hunter” history to outtakes where the animals got a hold of the camera. The show is a chance to both learn something and be amused, a break from the typical dullness of “National Geographic.”
The truth is, this show is pleasure watch. Steve Irwin, “Crocodile Hunter,” loves what he does and loves to share it with the world. And though it’s without a doubt that he’s making a few bucks doing this, it seems he is driven more by his passion for endangered animals than anything else. “Crocodile Hunter” is a break from the sitcoms and teen dramas that permeate the TV and you even might learn something.
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