Crikey! It’s the Irwins:
Public Education on Conservation Issues
Crikey! It’s the Irwins is an American reality television series where Robert is one of the series regular. After the successful run of the first season, the second season of the series premiered on 5 October 2019 and is currently ongoing. It features the entire Irwin family, including Steve Irwin through archive footages. With the aim of spreading the message of wildlife conservation, the Irwin family hopes to continue Steve Irwin’s mission to bring people closer to animals.
Through the television series, the Irwin family goes on wild animal rescue missions to give them a second chance in life, introduces the different animals they have in Australia Zoo, and educate viewers on how to love and protect the animals. For example, Robert hosted a segment with his sister, Bindi, to introduce Andre the American Alligator. They went on to describe the characteristics and physical features of alligators, explain the differences between crocodiles and alligators and share that Andre loves a good head scratch! The sibilings ended the segment off with an educational message on how people can protect alligators like Andre, by not purchasing wildlife products made with their skin. Check out this segment here which starts at the 3 minutes 45 seconds mark. In another segment on episode 4 of Season 2, Robert emphasized the importance of having animals like the king cobra in the Australia Zoo as they contribute to the breeding programmes and educate the public on their conservation issues. Check out this segment in the video below!
According to Eigner and Schmuck (2002), some individuals are more effective than others in garnering traction for a certain cause. Given his prominent status as Steve Irwin’s son cum wildlife conservationist, it serves as a potent concoction to drive his conversation effort and induce a change in the general public’s perception and behaviour towards wildlife. By highlighting the importance of conservation through this television series, it seeks to propagate the conservation message and possibly, immortalise the idea for future generations to come.