Steve Irwin's little girl follows his footsteps
What's in a name? Bindi was named after her dad's favorite crocodile.
"Bindi: The Jungle Girl" airs at 5 and 5:30 p.m. Saturdays on the Discovery Kids Channel. The opening episodes today will be simulcast on Animal Planet.
"Planet's Best With Terri and Bindi" airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on Animal Planet. The Irwins introduce documentaries, old and new, beginning Sunday with "Orangutan Diary."
Terri Irwin remembers well when her daughter was bitten with the same passion for animals her late father, Steve Irwin, possessed.
"She was about 2 weeks old," Terri says. "She saw a rattlesnake, a nonvenomous one. Bindi just fixated on it. She put her little arms up in the air, just so excited."
Ah, yes, she would follow in the family business of wildlife.
Today, eight years later, Bindi is ready for her spotlight. She stars in one cable series, is co-host of another and has a documentary special about her dad, who died after a stingray attack last year.
"I've always wanted to be on TV," Bindi says. "My mom and dad are my absolute heroes."
Bindi and Terri were talking by phone from Australia, during a maybe-typical workday. That included some TV and nature work, plus her tutor.
"Learning how to read was one of the really important things," Bindi says.
She has that down pat, so she can get to the TV subtleties.
"At first, I turned my back to the camera when I was reaching for something," she says. "I learned you have to face it."
The details apparently came to her quickly. The rest is family tradition.
Steve Irwin also was the child of naturalists. At the Australia Zoo in Queensland, he brought a childlike enthusiasm that worked well on TV.
Bindi shares that enthusiasm. She is, after all, a child. She lives at the zoo and talks warmly about its inhabitants.
"We should know they are beautiful creatures, passionate lovers, good parents," Bindi says.
No, you don't often hear an 8-year-old use the phrase "passionate lovers." Bindi did twice; she has clearly heard grown-ups praising nature's creatures.
She was 4 when she appeared on her dad's shows and on an episode of "The Wiggles." Taping for her own show already was in the works when her dad died in September at age 44.
The show goes on, including many scenes Steve already had taped. Others feature his friend Wes Mannion, the Australia Zoo director.
Terri Irwin, 42, originally from Oregon, also is on the show. So, for a blink or too, is Bindi's little brother, Bob, 3.
Still, there's one star. The title, "Bindi: The Jungle Girl," says it all.
Bindi hosts from a tree house filled with creatures. "You can see that she genuinely cares about them," Terri says. "That's not something you can teach."