Page 54 - Full Solutions 2nd Advanced Student Book_Neat

Unlike mostAustralians,who shrink from the tropical sun cradling his baby son, Bob, in one arm while feeding a large,
and shudder at the dangerous creatures that surround snapping crocodile with the other, there was an uproar and
them, Steve lrwin was a man in tune with his surroundings. lrwin apologised. He later insisted, however,that boy had
A true environmental warrior and lifelong animal rights been in no danger, and in later interviews laughed off the
o
advocate, he founded Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, which incident. E tt was all about'perceived danger' he said,
protects habitat and wildlife, sets up breeding and rescue claiming that'in front of that crocodile I was in complete
programmes for endangered species, and leads scientific control, absolute and complete control.' One commentator
research to aid conservation. blamed his death on the demands of an increasingly
Nothing fazed him - not the sharks or l<iller jellyfish, nor the voyeuristic brand of television. But lrwin was only doing
t0 man-eating crocodiles, nor the dozens of snakes and spiders what had come naturally. He was a natural showman.5 fl
capable of delivering a fatal bite. For lrwin, Australia's The British television presenter and survival expert, Ray
animals were'like a magnet', and he acquired fame, and Mears, said his death proved that'some things in nature
considerable fortune, by getting up close to them. ' I And should be left alone'. He said of lrwin:'He clearly took a lot
it was, perhaps, that sense of invulnerability that killed him. of risks, and television encouraged him to do that.
u
t5 The warrior who wrestled crocodiles and handled pythons I You leave dangerous animals alone because they will
without a scratch was diving in the warm waters of defend themselves.' Mears, too, condemned some wildlife
Queenslandt Great Barrier Reef when a stingray shot its programmes as'voyeuristic', saying:'Television has become
poisonous barb Into his heart. According to a witness, lrwin very gladiatorial, and itl not healthy.The voyeurism we
swam too close to it.Triangular-shaped stingrays, which glide are seeing on television has a cost, and it's that cost Steve
lrwin's family are paying now.' However, scientists who study
through the water on their wide, flat bodies, are usually
placid, lashing out with their long tails only when they feel stingrays say that lrwin was extremely unlucky. Unprovol<ed
threatened or are trodden on. lrwin was believed to be only attacks are virtually unheard of, and although a stingray's
the third person l<illed by a stingray in Australian waters. 70 venom will cause agonising pain, it is rarely fatal.
lrwin,whose television show Crocodile Hunter made him 'I Like Kylie Minogue, he was not taken entirely seriously
in Australia, and appeared to be more valued abroad. Urban
an international celebrity and a superstar in America, was
Aussies want to shal<e off the image embodied by the brash,
filming an underwater sequence for a documentary called
blond lrwin, and to have their modern, multicultural nation
Ocean's Deadliest at the remote Batt Reef.The crew of his
at portrayed overseas in a rather more sophisticated fashion.
boat called the emergency services and administered heart
Whatever one thought of lrwin, his passion for life could not
massage as they rushed to a nearby island to meet a rescue
helicopter.'fl be denied, nor the 100 per cent enthusiasm that he brought
to everything he did.'l get called an adrenaline junl<ie every
Animals were in lrwin's blood. At the age of six he was
other minute, and l'm just fine with that,' he once remarked.
given a four-metre python for his birthday.When he was
80 On another occasion, he claimed never to have experienced
eight, his father, Bob, a plumber with a passion for reptiles,
'fear of losing my life'.
moved the family from Melbourne to Queensland's Sunshine
Coast, where they opened a small wildlife parl<. By the
time lrwin was nine, he was catching crocodiles,and in
his twenties he worked for the Queensland government
as a crocodile trapper, removing problem animals from
populated areas. ln 199 I , when his parents retired, he took
40 over the business - originally called the Queensland Reptile
and Fauna Park, and now known as Australia Zoo - and
developed it into a maior tourist attraction.3 f-l
lrwin told the ABC documentary:'l've got animals so
genetically inside me that there's no way I could actually be
45 anything else.'Visitors came in droves to Australia Zoo to
watch lrwin hover perilously close to untethered crocodiles,
often leaping on to their bacl<s. But in 2004 he went too far,

Unit 5 Batttes 53