Steve Irwin

Stephen Robert Irwin was born in Essendon, Victoria, in 1962 and grew up at the small reptile park his parents Bob and Lyn founded on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. He handled crocodiles from boyhood, receiving a scrub python for his sixth birthday, and later spent years catching problem crocodiles in North Queensland so they could be relocated rather than shot. In 1991 he took over the family park, which became Australia Zoo.

In 1992 he married American naturalist Terri Raines, and footage from their crocodile-trapping honeymoon became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series, with Irwin's khaki shorts, boundless energy, and cries of Crikey, was eventually broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. He used his fame to fund conservation, purchasing large tracts of habitat and founding what became the Wildlife Warriors charity.

Irwin died in September 2006 at forty-four, pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming on the Great Barrier Reef. Tributes poured in from around the world, and his family continued his work at Australia Zoo. A crocodile species, Crocodylus, research vessels, and a Queensland reserve bear his name, and his conviction that people protect what they love still animates wildlife conservation.