Australian star Robert Irwin gets more and more like his beloved late father Steve Irwin with every passing day.
The conservationist, “Dancing with the Stars” season 34 winner, and the host of the new “Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro,” regularly posts interactions with animals on his social media. He recently channeled his late dad in a video he posted with a baby freshwater crocodile.
In his most recent post, he casually and enthusiastically handles a very unusual reptile.
Robert Irwin Introduces His Followers to the File Snake
Robert Irwin shared his interaction with a snake that most people have undoubtedly never heard of with the 9.7 million followers on his Instagram account.
The post includes an 88-second video in which Irwin spots the creature in shallow water in some woodland and quickly picks it up.
While handling the beautiful creature, he explains that it’s a file snake — so named because its rough skin is reminiscent of a nail file. According to Irwin, it’s one of his favorite snakes. It catches fish with its mouth, then uses its rough skin to hold the fish in place whilst wrapped around them. During its interaction with Irwin, the creature constantly sticks out its forked tongue, which Irwin explains it does to get a feel for its surroundings.
Irwin’s caption on his post reads, “One of the most unique snakes on earth, meet the file snake!”
The star’s fans and followers enjoyed the interaction and noted the similarities to his father in his handling of the snake.
One follower commented, “Geez! So much like your Dad and the way he would handle snakes …awesome to see 😊🐍.”
Another one joked, “Snake was like, “What the hell? Oh it’s an Irwin. Hey mate.””
Someone else wrote, “Wow, for a split second I thought it was Steve… Gosh you remind me of your dad ❤️.”
“You looked so much like your dad here❤️,” said another Instagram user.
Finally, one individual commented, “If something 10x bigger than me picked me up but then sounded like an Irwin… I’d be pretty chill about it too.”
It was the second animal-related post Irwin had posted within the last few days.
Irwin Recently Went on a ‘Crocodile Research Trip’
Robert Irwin — whose father was, of course, fondly known as the “Crocodile Hunter” — also recently posted about the crocodile research trip he was on at the time.
That post included a 74-second video in which Irwin is in a small boat on a river in Cape York, Queensland, in the remote Far North of Australia. He’s looking at huge crocodile footprints on the riverbank that confirm a large specimen had been spending some time resting there recently. He explains that the trip they’re on involves catching, tagging, then releasing crocodiles.
He captioned this post, “Footprint of a GIANT! We’re back on our annual crocodile research trip in remote northern Australia. First things first, it’s time to find signs of where crocs have been. And it doesn’t get better than a footprint like this, what a whopper 😳.”
His mother, Terri Irwin, commented on the post saying, “We are learning so much with our crocodile research. It’s the longest running telemetry study, helping us find out where they travel, nest, and go to escape extreme flooding events. We have discovered they can hold their breath more than eight hours, how their body temperature affects their movements, and that they can travel more than 60km per day. I could go on…it’s really exciting to be able to provide so much new data on these gorgeous animals!”
Irwin’s followers also loved this video, with one of them writing, “my favourite kind of irwin content, we need more documentaries 🤞.”
Another follower said, “I’m so happy that you are continuing your dad’s legacy. ❤️”
It really is so cool that Robert Irwin is following in his father Steve Irwin’s footsteps. Like Steve, his enthusiasm for animals is infectious and he undoubtedly makes learning about them fun.
