Family tradition
Steve Irwin’s daughter takes over animal advocacy

June 30, 2007 - 8:25AM
At an age when many girls are still playing with their Barbie dolls, Bindi Irwin has moved on to something a bit more challenging.
“I have Blackie my blackheaded python. I also have Corny the corn snake,” the 8-year-old-daughter of the late crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin, says proudly as she rattles off animals in the menagerie at her home in Queensland, Australia.
It’s a group she’ll introduce to the world through her new television show, “Bindi the Jungle Girl,” airing Saturdays on the Discovery Kids Channel at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The blond-haired, pigtailed bundle of energy recounts horror stories her father told her about exotic animals he saw mistreated in shows around the world..
“It’s terrible what people are doing,” she says. “And they’re just doing it for a living because they don’t know any better. They’ve just grown up like that. I think we really need to teach all people, big or little, they should all know the message of conservation.”
Her effort to teach them is “Bindi The Jungle Girl,” which shows viewers animals in their natural habitats while Bindi discusses things such as the status of the endangered species.
As her father did, she makes pitches not to use products that result in the needless deaths of animals.
Her father was killed by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary. The two had begun working together on “Bindi The Jungle Girl,” and he is featured in early episodes.