Entertainment, TV, Television - Navy Times

Steve Irwin’s little girl follows in father’s footsteps

Terri Irwin remembers well when her daughter was bitten with the same passion for animals that her late father Steve Irwin possessed.

“She was about 2 weeks old,” Terri says. “She saw a rattlesnake, a nonvenomous one.

“Bindi just fixated on it. She put her little arms up in the air, just so excited.”

Ah yes, she would follow in the family business of wildlife.

Today, eight years later, Bindi is ready for her spotlight. She stars in one cable series, is co-host of another and has a documentary special about her dad, who died after a stingray attack last year.

“I’ve always wanted to be on TV,” Bindi says. “My mom and dad are my absolute heroes.”

Bindi and Terri were talking by phone from Australia, during a maybe-typical work day. That included some TV and nature work, plus her tutor.

“Learning how to read was one of the really important things,” Bindi says.

She has that down pat, so she can get to the TV subtleties.

“At first, I turned my back to the camera when I was reaching for something,” she says. “I learned you have to face it.”

The details apparently came to her quickly. The rest is family tradition.

Steve Irwin also was the child of naturalists. At the Australia Zoo in Queensland, he brought a child-like enthusiasm that worked well on TV.

Bindi shares that enthusiasm. She is, after all, a child. She lives at the zoo and talks warmly about its inhabitants.

“We should know they are beautiful creatures, passionate lovers, good parents,” Bindi says.

No, you don’t often hear an 8-year-old use the phrase “passionate lovers.” Bindi did twice; she has clearly heard grown-ups praising nature’s creatures.

She was 4 when she appeared up on her dad’s shows and on an episode of “The Wiggles.” Taping for her own show already was in the works when her dad died September at age 44.

The show goes on, including many scenes Steve already had taped. Others feature his friend Wes Mannion, the Australia Zoo director.

Terri Irwin, 42, originally from Oregon, is also on the show. So, for a blink or too, is Bindi’s little brother Bob, 3.

Still, there’s one star. The title, “Bindi: The Jungle Girl,” says it all.

Bindi hosts from a tree house filled with creatures. “You can see that she genuinely cares about them,” Terri says. “That’s not something you can teach.”

Americans often reserve their praise for the cuter animals, but Bindi doesn’t view it that way.

“I especially like snakes,” she says. “Snakes are nice and natural.”

Balancing all of that is the fact that Bindi herself is cute, a trait passed on by her parents. She nudges us gently into the world of less-cute creatures.

On the tube:

— What: “Bindi: The Jungle Girl,” 5 and 5:30 p.m. Saturdays, Discovery Kids Channel. The opening episodes Saturday will be simulcast on Animal Planet.

— What else: “Planet’s Best With Terri and Bindi,” 8 p.m. Sundays, Animal Planet. The Irwins introduce documentaries, old and new, beginning June 10 with “Orangutan Diary.”

— And more: “My Daddy the Croc Hunter,” 9 p.m. Friday, June 8, on both Animal Planet and Discovery Kids.

— Did you know: Bindi Irwin was named after her dad’s favorite crocodile.