Steve Irwin trapping crocodiles during honeymoon became The Crocodile Hunter’s first episode

Google honours Steve Irwin – The Crocodile Hunter – with a doodle slideshow on his 57th birthday.

Steve Irwin, nicknamed The Crocodile Hunter, was born on this day, February 22 in 1962. Google celebrates the legacy of The Crocodile Hunter in the form of beautiful doodle slideshow on his 57^th birthday showing him exploring the great outdoors, holding a crocodile etc.

Steve Irwin (originally named Stephen Robert Irwin) was an Australian conservationist and television personality who had tremendous love of large reptiles through his life. He also expressed his intense love for the animals through his work at the Australia Zoo including his globally acclaimed television series The Crocodile Hunter.

Steve Irwin achieved worldwide fame from the renowned TV series The Crocodile Hunter that ran between 1996 and 2007. He co-hosted the series with his wife Terri. The couple also hosted other series, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries and Croc Files that were aired between 2002-2006 and 1999-2001 respectively. In 2005, they also hosted New Breed Vets. The TV series The Crocodile Hunter had the first episode of the couple’s footage while they were spending honeymoon trapping crocodiles together.

Steve Irwin was born to Bob and Lyn Irwin in Melbourne. His parents gifted him a 12-ft scrub python on his sixth birthday. He commenced handling crocodiles at the age of nine and he used to get guidance from his father on the process of handling reptiles. He also wrestled his first crocodile at the age of nine under his father’s supervision. He captured over 100 crocodiles while working as a volunteer for the East Coast Management program in Queensland. He took over the park’s management in 1991 and later renamed it Australia Zoo.

The Crocodile Hunter became famous all over the world due to various plays with the animals in the television series. He appeared in a cameo role in 2001-American comedy movie Dr. Dolittle 2. He also provided voice in the 2006-animated movie Happy Feet as Trev, an elephant seal. He was also appointed for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback. Even he was an avid promoter for Australian and Queensland tourism.

The government of Australia awarded him the Centenary Medal in 2001 for his service to global conservation and to Australian tourism. He was also nominated for Australian of the Year in 2004 although the award went to Australia’s former cricket captain Steve Waugh.

Steve Irwin lost his life at the age of just 44 on September 4, 2006 while he was on location at Batt Reef near Port Douglas, Queensland. He had taken part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest. He approached a short-tail stingray of around 6.5 ft (from the rear) to film its swimming array.

All of a sudden he was injured by that stingray with ‘hundreds of strikes in a few seconds’. His heart was pierced by the stingray’s barb causing him to excessively bleed to instant death.

The Crocodile Hunter is still remembered in Australia and all parts of the world. He was posthumously honoured with Queensland Greats Awards in 2015. In 2017, he was posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that later was unveiled in April 2018. Google with much love and honour dedicates the excellent doodle slideshow to the great wildlife conservationist on his birthday.