History Series / CrocodileHunter

* StageMom: Some people accused Terri of pushing Bindi too hard into being [[TheFaceOfTheBand the face]] of Australia Zoo right after [[TheBandMinusTheFace Steve's passing]], including taking her to America and doing lots of things over there. It died down as Bindi made it clear that she ''wanted'' to be more visible and take over her father's work.

* BadassFamily: Terri's as much of an activist as Steve was- before they met, she ran her own wildlife rescue in her home state of Oregon, with a focus on cougars. Bindi, rather than face traumatization, went right to work in her late father's footsteps as an activist and a animal-related TV show host. Robert's become quite the wildlife photographer- a hobby he shares with his late father -and has been working his way up to getting down and dirty with the crocodiles and other heavy-hitters of the zoo, under the guidance of Wes Mannion, Steve's oldest friend. To this day, the whole family still traps and wrangles crocodiles for research, just like Steve did.

* NatureDocumentary

* NotGoodWithPeople: An extremely mild example. Steve had no trouble making friends everywhere he went, but he always tended to be most comfortable in the bush with animals, and he had an uncommon intuition with wildlife and the wilderness that was showcased in his documentary work. ''Steve and Me'' shows that he was on the shy side whenever he wasn't out in the wilderness or working with animals, but he began to show the "grumpy" side of this trope near the end of his life after several bouts of negative media attention.
--> "Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first."

Irwin made several other movies and documentaries with conservationist themes, enlivened by his bubbly Larrikin personality and his {{catch phrase}}, "Crikey!", and he soon became perhaps the world's most visible and charismatic spokesman for the environment, filling a role left empty by the death of Creator/JacquesCousteau. Irwin even produced and starred in TheMovie of his TV show, ''Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course'', in which a crocodile accidentally swallows a top-secret government satellite that falls to earth, and Irwin and his wife Terri are unwittingly caught in the middle as they try to film their TV show.

Irwin's legacy lives on in the family he leaves behind: his wife Terri, who often served as his sidekick on ''Crocodile Hunter'', their son Robert and their daughter Bindi, who continue their father's work in the capacity of "junior animal activists." Bindi has starred in the DirectToVideo film ''Film/FreeWilly: Escape From Pirate's Cove'', and had her own kids' show, ''Bindi's Bootcamp'', which ran from 2012 to 2015. Nowadays, Robert Irwin is most well-known for his appearances on Series/TheTonightShow with Creator/JimmyFallon, where many people have noted that [[GenerationXerox his excitement and enthusiasm for animals is very similar to his father]].

** As noted above, [[UpToEleven some of the animals clearly respond to Robert the same way as they did with Steve.]]

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Unlike all of Steve's other work, which either focuses on wildlife, Steve himself, his zoo, or his family, "Ghosts of War" is about him searching for wreckages of warplanes from the Pacific theatre of World War II.

* ThePollyanna: It didn't matter if a komodo dragon chased him up a tree or if a snake threw itself at him, Steve would never lose his upbeat attitude and saw his close calls (and other moments where most people would freak out) as something to be excited by, either as a show of the animals' skills or the adrenaline rush of being attacked by a cool critter (like when a baby Nile crocodile bit his thumb, he was happy to have been bitten by a Nile crocodile). One of the only things that could make him drop his attitude was encountering an animal hurt by human activity.

* StageMom: They were some accusations that Terri pushed Bindi too hard into being [[TheFaceOfTheBand the face]] of Australia Zoo right after [[TheBandMinusTheFace Steve's passing]], including taking her to America and doing lots of things over there. It died down as Bindi made it clear that she ''wanted'' to be more visible and take over her father's work.

Real life adventures of the Australian conservationist Steve Irwin, the curator of Australia Zoo in Queensland, as he studied and captured crocodiles, either to relocate them or to take them for his zoo. Oh, and he also sometimes studied (but rarely captured) snakes.

** as of 2019, Bindi married her boyfriend, Chandler, who has, apparently, thrown himself into working with the family with ''gusto.''

* BigFun: Steve was slightly overweight, which lent this element to his enthusiastic personality. [[StoutStrength Not that he was weak, or harmless- this was a man who wrestled crocodiles for a living.]]

* GenerationXerox: Rob clearly resembles Steve more and more as he grows up, but Steve and Terri's LoveAtFirstSight story is repeated about twenty years later with [[GenderInvertedTrope the genders switched:]] A young American called Chandler Powell was an active fan of Steve, met up with Bindi at Australia Zoo by chance and hit it off perfectly, and then [[NervesOfSteel jumped into the croc pool at first chance.]] Rather fittingly, [[OnlyInFlorida Chandler's from Florida.]]

** Repeated about twenty years later, only [[GenderInvertedTrope with the genders switched:]] A young American called Chandler Powell was an active fan of Steve, met up with Bindi by chance and hit it off perfectly, and then [[NervesOfSteel jumped into the croc pool at first chance.]] Rather fittingly, [[OnlyInFlorida Chandler's from Florida.]]

* LoveAtFirstSight: Both Steve ''and'' Terri say they felt this the instant their eyes met. Terri relates that her first thought was, "He's ''got'' to be taken," and Steve- who was in the middle of ''feeding a crocodile'' at the time -was so spellbound by her he [[LoveMakesYouDumb almost got eaten himself.]] Terri was visiting the Australia Zoo (then called Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park) with a friend, and a photo was taken of Terri and Steve together shortly after this first encounter. [[FourthDateMarriage Steve proposed to her on their fourth meeting, only four months after they first met.]] They were married four months later.

** According to the zoo, [[UpToEleven some of the animals MISTAKE the young-adult Robert for Steve.]]

* HappilyMarried: Steve and Terri were passionately in love from the moment they met, united in their love of wildlife conservation.

* LastMinuteBabyNaming: Bindi was named on the delivery table. Her parents had been convinced they were going to have a boy and were surprised when they ended up with a girl. She was named after Bindi the MamaBear crocodile and Sui the family dog.

* DentedIron: As Steve got older, his work had taken a toll on his body. On top of his many scars and injuries from animals, he also did a lot of construction work around his house and the fledgling Australia Zoo himself, work ranging from building fences and taking trees down, to operating a backhoe, pouring concrete (which he got burns from), and milling his own timber. He usually shrugged off his injuries if he didn't think they were serious, pushing through until he finished the job, and would often rig up spotlights so he could work into the night. An accident during a construction project damaged a disc in his neck, and he permanently damaged his knee and a tendon in his shoulder wrangling crocodiles, which actually barred him from his surfing hobby. According to the special "Crikey! What an Adventure", Steve had confessed to his father a few months before his death that he was in constant pain. Despite all this, he kept trucking on, wrangling crocodiles, climbing trees and cliffs, and even took up MMA fighting as a replacement for surfing.

* {{Fingore}}: Steve was regularly injuring his fingers and hands working with crocodiles and other wildlife.
** In an episode of ''The Crocodile Hunter Diaries'', Steve and his team were dispatched to relocate a large number of very large, aggressive crocodiles in a relatively short amount of time. One crocodile lashed out during release, injuring Steve's finger. He at first thought it was just dislocated and ''yanked on his finger'' to try and put it back in place, the finger making cracking sounds that will set your teeth on edge, only for him to then realize that it was actually broken. Since the team still had a lot of crocodiles to deal with and there was no time to get to a hospital for what Steve considered to be a minor inconvenience, he just had the broken finger taped to a nearby one and went on his merry way. And that's not even the worst thing that happened in that episode!
** When Steve was feeding Graham, one of the meanest crocodiles at Australia Zoo, the crocodile bit down on his hand. He only managed to get himself free by essentially body-slamming Graham's head.

* {{Irony}}: Everyone assumed Steve would eventually get killed by an animal, and he was... but not during one of his crazy stunts, but in a random, uncommon accident that could have happened to anyone.
* {{Keet}}: Steve was excitable and jovial both on and off-camera. He frequently got bored and ran off to find wildlife during lulls in shooting, and was dreaming up new projects for both his conservation and filming careers even before he finished the ones he was already working on. To the surprise of no one, Steve's parents said in "The Steve Irwin Story" that as a child, he bordered on hyperactive, was never where he was supposed to be, and was always running off to climb trees or catch snakes and lizards.
* TheKiddieRide: There is one land rover ride with a fiberglass mannequin of the late Steve Irwin on it. Each of the ride has a plaque attached saying that it was built in memory of Steve. A photo of the ride is currently being used to illustrate said trope's page.

* LoveAtFirstSight: Both Steve ''and'' Terri say they felt this the instant their eyes met. Terri relates that her first thought was, "He's ''got'' to be taken," and Steve- who was in the middle of ''feeding a crocodile'' at the time -was so spellbound by her he [[LoveMakesYouDumb almost got eaten himself]]. Terri was visiting the Australia Zoo (then called Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park) with a friend, and a photo was taken of Terri and Steve together shortly after this first encounter. [[FourthDateMarriage Steve proposed to her on their fourth meeting, only four months after they first met.]] They were married four months later.

* StageMom: They were some accusations that Terri pushed Bindi too hard into being [[TheFaceOfTheBand the face]] of Australia Zoo right after [[TheBandMinusTheFace Steve's passing]], including taking her to America and doing lots of things over there. It died down as Bindi made it clear that she wants to be more visible and take over her father's work.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: As Robert's grown, he's started to resemble his father more and more, from looks to mannerisms to speaking styles both on and off-camera, which is all the more remarkable considering that Robert was only three when he lost his dad, and would mostly know him from his film work and secondhand stories. As early as toddlerhood, he was imitating his dad's croc capture commands as though he'd been catching crocs himself his whole life; by age four, he could stalk small reptiles just like Steve did; and by age thirteen, he was carrying interviews with a similar charisma to his father. As shown on [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BrZzfwAA3F3/ Robert's Instagram]], Terri found a picture of Steve as a child and showed it to Robert, and he legitimately thought it was just a retro-styled picture of himself. The resemblance is truly uncanny, and according to Wes, it's only going to become more striking as Robert gets into his twenties.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Played for laughs in an anecdote recounted in ''Steve and Me''. While the Irwins were on tour for ''Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course'', Steve tried to take their publicist, Andrew Bernstein, out clubbing to play wingman and help him pick up some girls, since Andrew didn't have a girl in his life and Steve was apparently ChickMagnet. Andrew tried to gently tell Steve that he liked women, but didn't ''like'' women, but Terri ended up having to explain to Steve that Andrew was trying to say he's gay. Steve's eyes widened, and when they spoke to Andrew next, Steve said, "Andrew, don't worry about it, blokes love me. We'll go out and I'll get you blokes." Andrew thought it was hilarious and the two became friends.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Played for laughs in an anecdote recounted in ''Steve and Me''. While the Irwins were on tour for ''Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course'', Steve tried to take their publicist, Andrew Bernstein, out clubbing to play wingman and help him pick up some girls, since Andrew apparently didn't have a girl in his life and Steve was apparently a ChickMagnet. Andrew tried to gently tell Steve that he liked women, but didn't ''like'' women, but Terri ended up having to explain to Steve that Andrew was trying to say he's gay. Steve's eyes widened, and when they spoke to Andrew next, Steve said, "Andrew, don't worry about it, blokes love me. We'll go out and I'll get you blokes." Andrew thought it was hilarious and the two became friends.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Steve never let down his guard around very dangerous animals, but he also seemed to be gleeful when he saw or handled them.

* BigFun: Steve was slightly overweight, which lent this element to his enthusiastic personality. [[StoutStrength Not that that meant he was weak, or harmless- this was a man who wrestled crocodiles for a living.]]

** An episode of ''Croc Diaries'' had Steve's team catching a croc in the mud. As Steve emerges covered head to toe in mud carrying the subdued croc, Terri narrates something to the effect of, "You guys have sent us a lot of fan mail asking who does our laundry. Well... guess who." Even worse is the fact that Steve has been known to [[{{Squick}} collect animal droppings and stow them away in his shirt pocket]], just so he can show the camera what he found.

** An episode of ''Croc Diaries'' had Steve's team catching a croc in the mud. As Steve emerges covered head to toe in mud carrying the subdued croc, Terri narrates something to the effect of, "You guys have sent us a lot of fan mail asking who does our laundry. Well... guess who."

* BadassFamily: Terri's as much of an activist as Steve was- before they met, she ran her own wildlife rescue in her home state of Oregon, with a focus on cougars. Bindi, rather than face traumatization, went right to work in her late father's footsteps as an activist and a animal-related TV show host. Robert's become quite the wildlife photographer and has been working his way up to getting down and dirty with the crocodiles and other heavy-hitters of the zoo, under the guidance of Wes Mannion, Steve's oldest friend. To this day, the whole family still traps and wrangles crocodiles for research, just like Steve did.