He's the wildest thing on two legs. A hard-core conservationist, a dedicated Wildlife Warrior, a loving husband and doting dad, Steve Irwin is truly one of a kind.

Stephen Robert Irwin was born in Victoria , Australia on February 22, 1962 to Bob and Lyn Irwin. During his childhood, Steve, his parents, his older sister Joy and younger sister Mandy moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland , where Bob and Lyn realised a long-held dream by opening the Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park .

Steve's mum and dad instilled in him a deep respect for all wildlife, and it was clear from a young age that Steve's affinity with animals was a profound natural gift. Steve's cherished first pet was a 12-foot Scrub Python named Fred that he received for his sixth birthday. While most other children were opening cans of pet food for their cats or dogs, Steve was out catching fish and hunting rodents to feed to his crocodiles and snakes.

“What a childhood!” Steve says with a grin. “My mum was the Mother Teresa of wildlife rehabilitation. Our house was a giant maternity ward fair smack-dab in the middle of the Beerwah Reptile Park . It was nothing for us kids to be sharing our house with orphaned joey kangaroos, Sugar Gliders, Ringtail or Brushtail Possums, koala joeys, baby birds and untold amounts of other injured Australian animals. What a wild menagerie, and an exceptional household to be raised in.”

Bob Irwin was a pioneering herpetologist and as his son grew up, Bob passed his expertise on to Steve. At the age of nine, Steve was to jump his first Freshwater Crocodile, a three-footer, under the watchful eye of his dad.

“By the age of twelve I'd become quite skilled at spearing myself out of the front of a boat, and took this responsibility very seriously.”

From these early experiences, a wild decade was to follow. Steve spent the greater part of the 1980s in the swamps and rivers of northern Queensland catching and relocating rogue crocodiles for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Crocs that couldn't be relocated were placed in Beerwah Reptile Park 's Crocodile Environmental Park , which Steve and Bob built when they saw the need to find permanent homes for some of these heavily persecuted animals.

“My family felt that our participation in the croc management program was the best way to protect the crocs from humans,” Steve says. “Our aim was to catch and relocate them before they made the mistake of showing themselves around populated areas.”

Amazingly for a zoological facility of its size at the time, every crocodilian at Australia Zoo was either caught by Steve and his dad. Steve and Bob pioneered the most successful crocodile trap designs and trapping techniques in the world – to this day, their success rate is staggering.

In the early nineties, Steve's life went from wild to absolutely extraordinary. Not only did 1992 see his marriage to fellow Wildlife Warrior Terri Raines, it also marked the creation of Steve and Terri's first wildlife documentary, The Crocodile Hunter. A chance encounter with his friend, television producer John Stainton, gave Steve the opportunity to bring his conservation message and diverse animal talents to the world.

This first step laid the foundations for the international phenomenon of Steve ‘The Crocodile Hunter' Irwin, whose empire now encompasses television documentary series, feature films, clothing lines, a wildlife aid organisation, a wildlife hospital, a swag of awards and of course, the place where it all began – Australia Zoo.

And it's all in the name of conservation.

Since 1991, Australia Zoo has flourished under Steve's enthusiastic and steadfast leadership. The exceptional life he leads is a testament to Steve's respect for all creatures great and small, and his passion for wildlife is matched only by his passion for family life. Steve and Terri's children, seven-year-old daughter Bindi and two-year-old son Robert (whom Steve affectionately calls ‘Bob'), have inherited their parents' love for animals and are instilled with a deep respect for all the species that share our planet.

Steve and Terri have dedicated their lives to spreading the conservation message and teaching people all over the world to understand, care for and protect our precious wildlife.

She jumps on crocs, wrangles venomous snakes, runs a Zoo, shoots documentaries in some of the wildest places on earth, educates people around the world and STILL makes time to raise a pair of gorgeous kids. Plus, she's married to Steve Irwin!

Who is this Superwoman?

Terri Irwin was born Terri Raines in Eugene , Oregon in the United States on July 20, 1964. Her family ran a construction business and Terri learned the ropes of managing a large, successful company while still in her teens. By the age of 20, Terri owned her own home and was running the family business.

As a small child, Terri was introduced to the world of wildlife conservation when her father would constantly bring home injured animals from the highways that his trucks traversed. These early experiences instilled in Terri an ongoing commitment to saving and rehabilitating wild animals. In 1986 Terri established a wildlife rehabilitation facility called ‘Cougar Country' to re-educate, rehabilitate and release predatory mammals such as cougars, raccoons, foxes, possums, bears and bobcats. Soon she was caring for more than 300 animals a year.

In 1989 Terri joined an emergency veterinary hospital as a Veterinary Technician to gain further valuable knowledge and experience of caring for all different species of animals, both wild and domestic. Between this, running her family business, managing Cougar Country and caring for her own birds, dog and 15 cats, life could not have been busier for this Wildlife Warrior. There was hardly any time for dating – wildlife always came first.

“I was running the family business while working nights, weekends and holidays at the vet clinic,” Terri says. “All that, combined with my rehabilitation facility, meant very little sleep.”

Life took a radical turn for Terri in September of 1991. She had decided to take a trip to Australia with a friend, and was excited to see how things were done down under in Australian wildlife rehabilitation and zoological facilities. She could never have anticipated the amazing wildlife adventures that were yet to come when she visited a small roadside zoo called the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park , “just out of curiosity.”

It seems that Terri and Steve were fated to meet – the American Wildlife Warrior and businesswoman, and the Aussie Eco-Knievel. Terri describes the moment when she saw Steve for the first time, giving a crocodile demonstration at the park, as “too incredible.”

“I was used to the hype and fanfare that went with even the simplest task when handlers were working with dangerous wild animals in the United States, and here was an Aussie bloke with one of the most dangerous animals on earth looking more like he was mailing a letter than depositing food into bone-crushing jaws,” she says.

A whirlwind four-month courtship was followed by an engagement, and after their June 4 th wedding in 1992, Steve and Terri spent their honeymoon on location in the Australian outback shooting their very first wildlife documentary.

From the dreams of a small child, Terri has gone on to share her lifelong ideals for wildlife with the world. In stepping up to the challenge of bringing conservation to the global stage, Terri was to leave her beloved Oregon, her family business, her wildlife rehabilitation centre, her vet work and all of her much-loved pets behind. But it was as if fate had taken a hand.

“It would have been easy to stay in America , but I knew my future was here in Australia , with Steve, working to save wildlife.”

Today, Terri's life with Steve, their seven-year-old daughter Bindi Sue and two-year-old son Robert Clarence is busier and wilder than ever… and she wouldn't have it any other way.

“My average day is never the same, EVER!” she says with a grin. “I'm either running the Zoo, working on a conservation project, or giving a lecture somewhere… I could be wheeling concrete or I could be doing an interview for television. It's never the same. But Steve, Bindi, Robert and I are almost always together, and I think that's one of the most important things as we're doing these adventures.”