Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, is very mature for her age of only fifteen, and has vowed to continue her dad’s work as a Wildlife Warrior.
Steve Irwin, known to many as the crocodile hunter, dedicated his whole life to his love of animals, especially reptiles. Sadly, in 2006, Steve suffered a tragic death after he was pierced in the heart by a stingray. Despite his death, Steve’s family has continued to work with the animals and the wildlife park Steve opened that is now called the Australia Zoo.
“I have spent my entire life living in a zoo, which is pretty crazy. Not many kids get to say that,” Irwin told E! News, “and it took me until I was about three years old to realize that we didn’t just come to the zoo every day, that we actually lived here.”
“Every day we’d wake up and come to the zoo and I’d think, ‘We’re coming to the zoo again. This is great!’ Until it hit me that we live here,” Bindi continued. “We literally live right in the middle of the zoo and it means that every day is a new experience and so much fun.”
Bindi went on to talk about what an amazing conservationist her father was, and how she plans on continuing his legacy.
He was the greatest dad on the planet. He was our inspiration, who we looked up to the most and, for us, we wanna carry on his legacy. We wanna make sure that his message of wildlife and conservation continues, because he was the world’s greatest conservationist and so we never want that message to die.
With dad, he was the ultimate wildlife warrior and we admired him more than anything. Dad honestly was incredible. We never got nervous about him with animals, but I do remember he gave me a piece of advice that has stuck with me forever. He said, ‘You have to treat animals the way you wish to be treated.’ Which is so true. And I think that applies to all animals.
If you treat animals how you want to be treated, you’re a lot better off. So when he was working with venomous snakes or cheetahs, he just treated them in a way…it was never trying to overpower them or anything like that. He was just loving them. And he was teaching other people about how beautiful they are. Telling people how to respect snakes and respect crocodiles and to love them. And I think if you go about it with that kind of attitude, it’s brilliant.
Bindi hopes that by sharing their story and their love for the cause, that it will make more people want to become “Wildlife Warriors” as well. “We’ve shared what our passion is with certain people and hopefully empowered others to want to make a difference on planet earth,” Bindi said. “And so if we’re able to talk to people and encourage people to become wildlife warriors, then that’s brilliant.”
Brilliant croc show @AustraliaZoo for #SteveIrwinDay So happy to be celebrating Dad's legacy with everyone in khaki today.
— Bindi Irwin (@BindiIrwin) November 15, 2013
“You’ve got to think about the difference between normal and common. Because for us, our life is certainly not common,” she continued. “We live in the middle of a zoo. We’ve gotten to travel the world with our family and share our passion and love for wildlife with the world.”
[Image via Twitter]
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