Croc Hunter's Son Unfazed by Snake Bite

NEW YORK — Like father, like son? The 4-year-old son of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin wasn't at all alarmed when he was recently bitten by a baby boa constrictor, according to his mother.

"He picked one of them up and it bit him on the finger, and he was so proud to have copped his first hit," Irwin's widow, Terri, said Monday at an appearance at FAO Schwarz with her two children to promote a new line of toys.

"He said, 'I hope it wasn't venomous,' so I assured Robert I wouldn't actually let him play with venomous snakes," she added.

Terri Irwin said the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Bindi, was first bitten by a snake when she was 18 months old.

The girl, who is featured in the Discovery Kids Channel show "Bindi the Jungle Girl," posed for cameras with a new action figure in her likeness.

"It's every little girl's dream to have an exact look-alike doll. It's amazing," said Bindi, who was signing action figure toys of her late father.

Steve Irwin, known through his nature TV series as a wrangler of crocodiles and snakes, died in 2006 from a stingray's barbed tail during an underwater documentary shoot. He was 44.

Irwin provoked an international outcry in 2004 after being filmed holding his then 1-month-old son while feeding a snapping crocodile.

Comments

[tfred]

What a sick family that is. I agree with Puff and Stuff that Bindi is an odd little child, and truly very annoying. Does any agree with me that Teri is just using the child to make money for that zoo they run. Psychiatrists all around, please.

[Felicty]

Throw her to the crocodiles, then.

I wanna see the pictures.

[Arguman]

lol. "Mommy! I've been bitten by a snake! Huzzah!" *foams at the mouth and goes into convulsions*
Oh, Robert I'm so proud! And look at your lovely death throes! Oh, if only your father were here to see this. :*(

[jesuswazasocialist]

Who loved it? Steve or the snake.

[citizenofmars]

sombody call CPS...

[sa]

methinks "bindi"
will soon become some
"different strokes"
freakshow.

please someone responsible,
get her out of showbiz
until she grows up.

the learning curve there
is like swimming with sting-rays.
(whoops)

[lungfish]

I was doing field studies on various thamnophis and other local colubrid snakes on the California coast... collecting and photoing them to look at the color variations from valley to vally along the shorelines.

My son, who was 7 at the time and well aware and involved in his dads hobbies came running to me with an unusual color phase garter snake that he had found... I took some pics, told him that he did good and then instructed him to return it to where he found it...

Then he held it up at eye level and it lunged and got a grip on his upper lip. I gently pried it off his face and was asked to get a pic of the bite pattern because "it might be important" which I still keep in my files... My kid was always a trooper.

When we were looking at variations in Crotalus (rattlesnakes) in California (there are a number of subspecies and several distinct and separate ones like Cerastes as well) he was really good at finding them and pointing them out... we had a blast traveling all over the SW looking for various herps.

Steve Irwin was a great role model for both of us as he demonstrated the power of curiousity and the joy of discovery.­..my son just ate it up and, to tell the truth, so did I.

[lungfish]

I was in Port Douglas, Australia in the first week of Sept of 06, freediving and taking underwater pics on the Great Barrier reef when we heard of Steve's accident. We had run into him two days before while on the reef, miles from shore, and I got to meet him and I have some excellent pics of that meeting... never posted or shared them because of the accident itself.

He was all Australian. Friendly, upbeat, the person you saw on the tube was the genuine article. Just a very nice man and the world is a little bit smaller without him.

Those of us who spent time around herps understood his activities very well. Handling snakes and lizards, particularly large ones or dangerous ones comes with risk and it requires agility, courage, an understanding of the animal itself... you just gotta wanna and you need to do it right. He was an expert and a professional and I don't know any herpers that considered him reckless or foolish. Its the only way you can get close to them and learn the details and without people like him we wouldn't understand why these animals are so important and deserve our concern and protection.

I have taken his sense of adventure to heart and have found his experiences to be inspirations for my own and I am certain that I am not the only one.

Good on ya, Steve! No worries, we got it....

[lungfish]

Are these folks irresponsible or do they know something we don't?

http://www.stage6.com/From-Sad-2-Happy-2-Bliss/video/2242618/Baby-VS-Cobra

[RebelPatriot]

Is there a dead pool started yet?

[ladygreenslippers]

Why is this a story?

If this is a story, then all parents should start posting the potty training achievements of their toddlers.

[adc]

Tough kid. Getting his first "badge of honor". Atta boy!

At least he won't grow up to be a pansy - or have someone's cock in his mouth.

[PuffAndStuff]

I think Steve Irwin was a well-intenioned individual who did very good things in his life by instilling awareness of wildlife in children and his overall conservationism work. It was sad that the world lost him far too soon.

However, and God please forgive me for my mean ways, the girl, Bindi, comes off as a very strange and annoying child. And it doesn't seem fair to blame her entirely, it seems an adult -- presumably her mother? -- encourages this odd public persona of hers.

Terri Irwin may still be grieving the loss of her husband, understandably so, but from what I've seen of her and Bindi on several news and talk shows since his death (had never seen/heard either of them prior to that), I must wonder if she was just a strange woman to begin with. And her parenting ways do seem very 'different', as did his in the infamous aligator with his infant son situation.

[ladygreenslippers]

call your parents and apologize for posting this foolishness.

[fahrenheit451]

He loved it?!

Better start the therapy early...

[BlueandGreen]

Earth to Terri Irwin: Get a grip, lady!

[wadenelson1]

This family deserves a "lifetime" Darwin recognition award.

[Mutineer]

Somebody needs to call Social Services on these people.