Bindi Irwin steps into TV creature land

Terri Irwin remembers well when her daughter was bitten with the same passion for animals that 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."

Today, eight years later, Bindi – named after her father's favorite crocodile – is ready for her spotlight. She stars in one cable series premiering Saturday, is co-host of another debuting Sunday and has a documentary special airing tonight 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."

She had a few things to learn, of course.

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"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," she 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.)

Not that television is a new experience for Bindi. She was 4 when she appeared up on her dad's shows and on an episode of "The Wiggles." Taping for her own show already was in the works when he died in September at age 44.

The show goes on, including many scenes Steve Irwin already had taped. Others feature his friend Wes Mannion, the Australia Zoo director.

Terri Irwin, 42, originally from Oregon, is also on the show. So, for a blink or two, 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 treehouse filled with creatures.

"You can see that she genuinely cares about them," Terri says. "That's not something you can teach."

Americans often reserve their praise for the cuter animals, but Bindi doesn't view it that way.

"I especially like snakes," she says. "Snakes are nice and natural."

Fortunately, Bindi herself is cute, another trait passed on by her parents; she nudges us gently into the world of less-cute creatures.