A professor has revealed the confronting moment the great Steve Irwin turned his research into the wildest of rides.
It was a day that changed his life forever and gave him the confidence and skills to continue a joint project that is delivering new insights into how the planet is changing.
University of Queensland zoologist, Professor Craig Franklin, is helping drive the world’s largest and longest-running study of crocodiles.
The quest began with the late Crocodile Hunter in 2002 and Prof Franklin continues it with Terri and Steve’s children Bindi and Robert.
Hundreds of apex predators have been fitted with hi-tech devices that track their previously secretive movements.
They measure how climate is affecting their body temperature, using the massive reptiles as the world’s “barometer”.
Prof Franklin and Irwin, the world-famous conservationist and TV star, forged a friendship after a chance meeting in Far North Queensland.
Steve asked him if they could join forces and it wasn’t too long before the professor became the student.
“He had perfected the art of catching crocs so they could be tagged. His method was safe for the animal and the team, and also quite a quick process,” Prof Franklin said.
“One day, we had a nine-footer trapped and Steve suddenly said: ‘Craig, this is your animal’.
“Then he said ‘you’ve got the head’, which meant I would be the first person to jump on and then others would follow behind me.
“Like any great team leader, Steve knew people’s capabilities and he trusted me, so I jumped on.
“It felt like I was landing on concrete. It was quite a moment and, fortunately, it all went very well.”
Prof Franklin said it went so well, in fact, Steve took things up a notch, as he often did.
“The next one was 13-and-a-half feet long and he wanted me in the same role. I said, ‘you’re kidding me’. He wasn’t.
“These methods are the best in the world. It’s like giving the crocs a big hug, using the team’s body weight to hold them down. They usually become really calm, which allows us to fit the device, which takes about 10 to 15 minutes.”
Scroll down to learn how to catch crocs – Steve Irwin-style
Prof Franklin said he had “a “degree of suspicion” when he first met the Croc Hunter, wondering how “real” he was.
“I had thought: who is this guy? Is this all a front for TV? Is it the real deal? What I discovered was he absolutely was.
“Steve was completely authentic in everything he did. He had no formal training, but his understanding of wildlife was incredible. This allowed him to ask very sophisticated questions. He was an excellent writer and researcher and we published papers together.”
In 2007, UQ posthumously awarded Steve Irwin an adjunct professorship, and in 2015, awarded Terri Irwin AM a Doctor of Science honoris causa to recognise their enormous contributions and leadership in wildlife research and conservation.
Prof Franklin will join Terri and Robert to present the annual Steve Irwin Memorial Lecture from the Crocoseum at a special UQ Community Day at Australia Zoo on Saturday, November 20.
November 15 was Steve Irwin Day, where people around the world united to raise money for Wildlife Warriors to help continue Steve’s conservation work.
Catching crocs: where it happens
As told by Professor Craig Franklin:
We arrive at our field site, these days it’s the Wenlock River, and we’re based at the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve. First, the Australia Zoo team goes along the river and looks for signs of crocodiles: footprints, places where they were basking. They then set traps in the river or on the riverbanks that are baited with large bits of pig and cattle to catch an animal. We usually set about 20 traps, each takes probably half a day for a team of four people to set up and the traps usually span more than 30 km of river. Every morning at 7am we travel up and down the river in a boat to check the traps. Hopefully, at least one has gone off and we have a crocodile. Then, we report by satellite phone how many crocodiles we have caught, the approximate size of the animals and the locations.
Following Steve’s methods
We assemble the team, which can be upwards of 15–20 people and we go to each animal. When we arrive, it’s sitting in the trap and the first thing we do is put three ropes on the animal’s top jaw. Two of those ropes allow us to pull the animal out of the trap and there are four or five people on each rope, because a large animal can weigh close to half a tonne. The third rope only has one person on it and it is used to tie up the jaws. Once you’ve pulled the animal out of the trap it tends to death roll – spinning round and round – and the person who’s on the single rope can use the animal’s natural instinct to death roll to bind up the jaws. Then we jump on it. There is always a team leader and when they are sure that the jaws are secure they say, ‘Croc team get ready’. Then there is a pecking order; you line up and then the first person jumps on the head, then the next person jumps on behind them, then someone else jumps on behind and so on, it’s like a domino tackle on the animal that restrains it.
What happens next – the science
After we have ensured that the jaws are well secured and the animal blindfolded, we can get on with the science. We take length measurements, blood samples, check the sex of the animal, take samples of keratin from the scutes (the body projections) and tissue samples, which we use for genetic analyses and to find out what the animals feed upon. The key focus is, however, to attach satellite transmitters or to surgically implant acoustic tracking devices, which allow us to record the animal’s movements for up to 10 years. The devices are also temperature sensitive, so we get a measure of body temperature. If we want to understand the effects of climate warming, long-term data are important, so we hope that moving into the future we will be able to see whether there are impacts of increasing temperatures on saltwater crocodiles and how they regulate their body temperature.
