The Crocodile Hunter: The Incredible Life and Adventures of Steve and Terri Irwin by Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin

a week. Several months later, we bred the goannas in our specially designed Canopy Goanna Breeding Facility. All the eggs hatched perfectly and I’ve got to say that baby canopy goannas are absolutely darling. After we bred both pairs and established much needed scientific data and manuscripts, we took them back to Cape York Peninsula where they came from and let the whole lot go: adults, babies, and all.

    Loaded up, heading on another mission.
    That’s what we’re all about at Australia Zoo—securing information so that in the event a species like the canopy goanna becomes endangered, we have the published information to ensure we can easily and effectively breed the animals so that we can release them back into the wild.
    Canopy goannas are not very cuddly, but by crikey, they need our love. Like all of our wildlife, we have to understand them to conserve them. Our scientific research in the jungles of North Queensland is often hot and sweaty but always rewarding. The notorious taipan is one of the species I respect most. We encounter them often yet always unexpectedly. They are considered the most dangerous animal in our tropical North and should be avoided at any cost. It’s important that we have a complete understanding and respect for the taipan. Without this apex predator the tropical North’s biological diversity will diminish.

    Canopy goanna. What a little beauty!

TERRI

Chapter VI
    The American Invasion
    M y first trip to Australia happened because of a chance meeting with an old school friend while I was celebrating my twenty-second birthday. I’d known John since kindergarten. We’d grown up together and he seemed more like family than a friend.
    When he told me that he was leaving to spend a year in Australia, I was green with envy. He suggested that I should go over for a visit, too, and that started me seriously thinking about it. A trip that far away sounded both fantastic and frightening. This first Australian adventure took me from Manly, New South Wales, all the way to the Great Keppel Islands in Queensland. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I actually had feelings of homesickness leaving Australia. I’d fallen in love with this country of sunshine.
    My next visit didn’t happen until several years later. It was the summer of 1991 when a friend of mine, Lori, invited me to accompany her on a diving trip to Australia. At this point in my life I was quite settled in Oregon and flying off to Australia wouldn’t be easy. I was paying off a house, running the family business and a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and working part-time at an emergency veterinary hospital. I didn’t even have time for a social life, much less to fly halfway around the world. However, I had begun to live by the philosophy of grabbing hold of opportunities whenever life offers them: when opportunity knocks, break down the door! So I rounded up the money, called Lori, and September 1991 saw us arriving in Brisbane.
    Lori had arranged for us to stay with two of her friends and we spent several days shopping, enjoying the nightlife, and relaxing in the sun. The only things missing were the things Lori and I found the most interesting. Lori hadn’t yet gone diving and I hadn’t yet visited a single zoological facility. On our last weekend in Australia we agreed to take that diving trip. I was going to go along and enjoy the boat ride as diving has always been a little too scary for me.
    Before diving that weekend we headed for the Sunshine Coast and a good old Aussie barbecue. I couldn’t know that this day would change my life forever.

    The Glasshouse Mountains, location of the Reptile and Fauna Park.
    On the way to the barbecue we drove all the way up to Noosa, enjoying the sights along the way. On the way back, we turned off onto the Glass House Mountains Road. It was mid-afternoon and I was a bit sleepy after a late Saturday night out on the town, so I started dozing off in the back seat. I woke to find