\'Crocodile Hunter\' Steve Irwin killed

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

Perhaps he believed what he did for conservation, the environment and wildlife, which was a lot, was just as important as being a firefighter or soldier.

Not that I want to speak ill of the dead, but I should point out that he was a wildlife conservationist rather than an 'environmentalist'. His work on protecting and preserving wildlife was admirable, as was his role in public education. But he never seemed to grasp the 'big picture' required for real environmentalism. He dealt with the consequences of things like habitat destruction and degradation, but at the same time he was, politically, a fan of the Howard Government - one of the least environmentally friendly governments this country has ever seen.

His zoo preserved species endangered by habitat destruction, but he was (rather flippantly) disparaging about Greens Party leader Dr Bob Brown's policies. Bob Brown will never be the international household name Steve Irwin was, but his tireless political campaigning has done more for the protection of vast tracts of pristine World Heritage wilderness and the preservation of millions of animals and thousands of endangered species than a small army of Steve Irwins could ever hope to.

Credit where it's due - he was a high profile animal conservationist. But an environmentalist he was not.