[dd74]

No doubt Steve Irwin was an ambassador for an interest in animals. But I can't get around the fact that what he was doing was purely sensational as none of it was based in reality. What is anyone supposed to learn by getting so perilously close to any wild animal, when in fact, they don't need to do so?

Ironically, I'm reading "Life of Pi," which, if you don't know the story, is a novel about a castaway on board a lifeboat with a bengal tiger, a hyena, an oranguatan and zebra. The novel hinges on the importance of territory, mutual respect and instinct between animals in an unknown world. Relating this to Irwin, there were times when I believed he showed neither knowledge of territory or respect for some of the animals he used in his television program. If in the least, Irwin seemed alarmingly cavalier about the fight-or-flight instinct possessed by many of these animals.