Robert Irwin remembers his father Steve Irwin: "my life's goal is to make him proud"

It’s been 15 years since we lost Steve Irwin, the ‘Crocodile Hunter’ and famed animal conservationist, and as painful as remains that he is gone, his legacy is as strong as ever. And nowhere is it stronger than in his children Bindi and Robert.

Robert Irwin, 17, is the spitting image of his father in more than just his looks, unmistakably carrying his father’s spirit and passion, as well as his empathy for all living things.

As he, his sister Bindi, his mother Terri and the rest of the Irwin clan carry on his mission both in life and on their television show, Crikey! It’s the Irwins, streaming on Discovery+ on Starzplay in the Middle East, his father’s presence is always felt.

Esquire Middle East had the chance to speak to Robert about carrying on his father’s legacy.

Watch the full interview here:

Read an excerpt below:

Obviously you were born into a family that had a passion for this for multiple generations, going back to your grandfather. When did you first know that you loved it for yourself?

Ah, that is a really, really good question. I think that for me, what really hit home was one of my earliest memories of actually being on one of our crocodile research expeditions. And it was an expedition that we went on when I would have just not quite turned two years old. It’s an incredibly distant memory.

But I remember when we were up in northern Queensland, in the remote bush land mean in the middle of nowhere. And it was with my mom, my dad and a few of our Australia Zoo team. And we’re up there. And I remember, dad actually caught this crocodile, this little female that was about eight foot long. This was when the research was in its earliest phases. We would actually catch the croc, then attach these tracking devices, and then see it off again, and then just track it from afar.

I remember when I was tiny, it was actually the last crocodile research trip we ever went on with Dad. And he said, ‘Robert, you’re old enough to help catch these crocs’. And I felt like I had a really big responsibility. He held it down and said, ‘alright, you can come in’ and it was my mom, my sister and me. I remember him showing me the croc’s little tail, and its beautiful little head and getting to see it and experience it, and then watch it being released back into the wild.

It was an incredibly poignant moment for me. It’s still a vague memory, and not something that I can remember in its entirety. But it’s enough that I go, ‘That was it. That was the spark’.

Getting to see first-hand this absolute dinosaur of an animal and see dad’s passion. That’s what made me go, wow. I’m lucky to live this life. Absolutely. It’s hard to calculate.

There’s actually a photo. It’s actually that was that was captured. And there’s a photo of me about this being tiny at the at the base of his croc’s tail holding it down. I’ve got a very serious face on. I can send it to you. And yeah, that was it. That was that was the moment. It’s a hard one to put into words. But that was it.

A lot of people who lose a parent maybe have some photos, you have thousands of hours of footage of you and your family together. How do you interact with that footage? How much do you watch?

All the time! All the time. Especially when I was younger. I remember, actually, every day, every morning, before school, this was when I was really doing. We would want to watch TV and instead of watching cartoons in the morning for breakfast, I’d watch the old documentaries of Dad, working with animals from my earliest memory. I absolutely loved that so much and it really made me feel close to him.

You know, we lost Dad a while ago. I was very young. I was only two years old. I feel very lucky to have so much captured on camera because whenever a moment starts to fade, whenever I start to forget, I can look back at all this old footage and it completely sparks these memories. I’ll go, ‘I remember that moment, I remember when we were there!’ And I feel very lucky.

As you said, so many people there might only have a few photos, maybe a couple of home movies, but I’ve got literally my entire life on camera and those early years with that, that’s something I cherish more than anything. I feel very, very lucky in that respect.

I actually still learn from dad watching these old documentaries. I love working with crocodiles, they’re my favorite animals, if you couldn’t tell already. And he had such an amazing affinity with all animals, but particularly crocs. Seeing how he would work with him, how he’d get him to strike out of the water, and his passion to educate people about them. I still watch that and watch the little techniques that he used, and actually use that when I go in with our crocs and get to work with them and feed them and do our daily shows, to teach people about them.

I still learn from this day, and I still get to remember these beautiful memories, because it was all captured on camera. And funnily enough, with this new season of Crikey, It’s the Irwins!, it’s the a lot of the camera crew that filmed the original Crocodile Hunter documentary that are still working with us to this day, 25 years later.

What footage do you go back to the most?

I think what I love watching so much is dad in his element, working with venomous snakes, and working with crocodiles, the two most dangerous animals. I love to watch him at home at Australia too, seeing how he would just push the limits. You can see how much he loved working with crocodiles. And he would get crocs to strike out of the water harder and faster than anyone could. And he did that to teach people about them. But I also love to see him out in the wild working with crocodiles as well. And to see the earliest beginnings of the croc research.

There’s some really awesome early footage of when he was not much older than I am, a young adult, and he had his big mullet haircut, going out in in the middle of nowhere, catching crocodiles, and studying them. And he started this 40-something years ago–way, way back in the day before he met my mom. And to see that early footage and what a pioneer he was, that is just so inspiring to me.

He completely pioneered a new age in wildlife conservation. To see him working with dangerous animals in his element, that’s what I always end up going back to. Because for me now, I’m starting to do a lot more at Australia Zoo with the wildlife we work with. I love working with crocodiles more than anything else. I love going back and actually watching that footage. And I’ll then use that when I’m in with a croc. I’ll go, ‘okay, I noticed that what dad did is he waited until the croc popped its eyes just above the surface. And that’s when he’d go in and get that strike.’ All these little details that I’d watched him do and his body language with crocs to get them going was really cool.

Because at Australia Zoo, every day, we go in with our crocs, we get them to strike, we get them to exhibit this wild behavior of trying to kill us. We do that for the health of the Crocs, they have a great time, but also to educate people to showcase crocs in their full glory, he built the Crocaseum, this massive 5000 seat auditorium that’s full every single day where crocs come out, and basically try and kill us and chase us around and give people this amazing new appreciation and understanding of just how amazing these animals are. He made crocodiles cool.

Is that your goal, too?

I hope that I can do the same thing. You know, I hope in every aspect of my life that I can make him proud, and made sure that his message never dies. I think that now, getting to work with Animal Planet and Discovery, I really want to do more in the documentary space. I want to have an even bigger voice to make sure that that message never ever dies. Because he always said, I don’t care if people remember me, I care if people remember my message. And I want to make sure that continues forever.

Watch Crikey! It’s the Irwins on Discovery+ through Starzplay