90 Steve Irwin Quotes on Nature & Wildlife Conservation

If you are an animal and nature lover who’s interested in the best Steven Irwin quotes, you’ve got to add this in your must-read collection.

You’re probably familiar with Steven Irwin if you are an environmentalist or just a nature lover in general.

In this collection, we’ve collected 90 of his best, most inspirational, and motivational quotes.

Stephen Robert Irwin, commonly known as Steven Irwin, was an Australian who co-owned and operator of the Australian Zoo.

Together with his wife Terri, Steve hosted the television series “The Crocodile Hunter”—a wildlife documentary series which was broadcasted internationally.

He became famous worldwide through this television series, the reason why he was popularly called as “The Crocodile Hunter.”

Let’s check these out.

And make sure to read these cheetah quotes.

Best Steve Irwin Quotes

1. “Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first.”

2. “My job, my mission—the reason I’ve been put onto this planet—is to save wildlife. And I thank you for coming with me. Yeah, let’s get ’em!”

3. “If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love.”

4. “The message is simple—love and conserve our wildlife.”

5. “I believe our biggest issue is the same biggest issue that the whole world is facing, and that’s habitat destruction.”

6. “I have no fear of losing my life—if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.”

7. “All you have to do in life is be passionate and enthusiastic and you will have a wonderful life.”

8. “We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.”

9. “I have a message for my fans. Whatever you want to do in this world, it is achievable. The most important thing that I’ve found, that perhaps you could use, is be passionate and enthusiastic in the direction that you choose in life, and you’ll be a winner.”

10. “I believe sustainable use is the greatest propaganda in wildlife conservation at the moment.”

11. “I am optimistic globally. So many scientists are working frantically on the reparation of our planet.”

12. “I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.”

13. “Herein lies our problem. If we level that much land to grow rice and whatever, then no other animal could live there except for some insect pest species. Which is very unfortunate.”

14. “Where I live, if someone gives you a hug, it’s from the heart.”

Inspirational and Motivational Steve Irwin Quotes

15. “Fear helps me from making mistakes, but I make a lot of mistakes.”

16. “Born a wildlife warrior, die a wildlife warrior.”

17. “My dad taught me from my youngest childhood memories through these connections with Aboriginal and tribal people that you must always protect people’s sacred status, regardless of the past.”

18. “My field is with apex predators—hence your crocodiles, your snakes, your spiders.”

19. “I get called an adrenaline junkie every other minute, and I’m just fine with that.”

20. “That might have a lot to do with it, but you know, I probably don’t show fear, but I suffer from fear like everyone else.”

21. “I think my path would have always gone back to or delivered me to wildlife.” 

22. “It’s just great! You’re fortunate in your life to be in a good enough position to help someone.”

23. “A lot of people who work with wildlife satisfy their own egos. And I don’t really agree with that. What I do is get in nice and close to the animal to make the animal look good.”

24. “My aim in this world is to make that brown snake, that crocodile, that koala, that red-backed spider, that black widow, look good. That’s my job.” 

Steve Irwin Quotes About Crocodiles and Snakes

25. “Take the crocodile, for example, my favorite animal. There are 23 species. Seventeen of those species are rare or endangered. They’re on the way out, no matter what anyone does or says, you know.”

26. “The first crocodile I ever caught was at nine years of age, and it was a rescue.”

27. “Since I was a boy—from this house, I was out rescuing crocodiles and snakes. My mum and dad were very passionate about that and I was lucky enough to go along.”

28. “When the East Timor conflict broke out—when they gained independence, the militia killed a lot of East Timorese people. And their sacred totem is the crocodile. They believe that their island is actually a solidified crocodile, so it has sacred status.”

29. “I was born and raised with crocodiles—they are a piece of cake. But kids are so unpredictable.”

30. “It is all about perceived danger. In front of that crocodile I was in complete control. Absolute and complete control. That is my profession.”

31. “I would be considered a bad parent if I didn’t teach my children to be crocodile savvy because they live here, they live in crocodile territory.”

32. “It causes me great pain and anxiety to inflict fear on this poor old croc, but without me, he and his wilderness would suffer.”

33. “Because when they strike it can be that quick that if they’re within range, you’re dead, you’re dead in your tracks. And his head weighs more than my body so it’s whack!”

34. “Medieval attitudes such as ‘the only good croc is a dead one,’ ‘the only good shark is a dead shark,’ ‘there’s a snake, quick, kill it.’”

35. “You know, you can touch a stick of dynamite, but if you touch a venomous snake it’ll turn around and bite you and kill you so fast it’s not even funny.”

36. “No, snakes are no problem. I’d go to any country, anywhere, any snakes, not a problem.”

37. “I’ve probably saved thousands of peoples’ lives with my educational message on snake bites— how to get around anything venomous.”

38. “Snakes are just very instinctive to me. I’ve been playing with snakes since before I could walk. It doesn’t matter where or what it is, from the biggest to the most venomous.”

39. “I’ve worked with more dangerous snakes than anyone in the world and I’ve never been bitten. It’s a gift.”

Steve Irwin Quotes on Nature, Wildlife, and Conservation

40. “If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.”

41. “Every cent we earn from Crocodile Hunter goes straight back into conservation. Every single cent.”

42. “If you can’t excite people about wildlife, how can you convince them to love, cherish, and protect our wildlife and the environment they live in?”

43. “The truth is that we will never save wildlife by killing it.”

44. “I want the cleanest water, the freshest air and wildlife in abundance. But most of all, I want a future for our children.”

45. “So, my tactic with conservation of apex predators is to get people excited and take them to where they live.”

46. “We humans still have a long way to go with learning to live harmoniously with our environment and its wildlife.”

47. “Every single day of our lives involves wildlife education.” 

48. “Now more than ever, we are all becoming more aware about the need to conserve our precious living heritage.”

49. “We must teach, spread the word, the wildlife gospel.”

50. “I sincerely believe that there’s room for cutting down trees for forestry and grazing, so that we all get to eat. Everyone has to compromise.”

51. “I think wildlife is just like a magnet, and it’s something that I can’t help.”

Steve Irwin Quotes About  Education and on Saving Animals

52. “Yeah, I’m a thrill seeker, but crikey, education’s the most important thing.”

53. “But I put my life on the line to save animals.”

54. “If we can get people excited about animals, then by crikey, it makes it a heck of a lot easier to save them.”

Steve Irwin Quotes About Animals and Animal Cruelty

55. “Yeah, for some reason parrots have to bite me. That’s their job. I don’t know why that is. They’ve nearly torn my nose off. I’ve had some really bad parrot bites.”

56. “And I have stopped eating tuna until the tuna nets cease killing tens of thousands of dolphins every single year.”

57. “The only animals I’m not comfortable with are parrots, but I’m learning as I go. I’m getting better and better at ’em. I really am.”

58. “There are still countries that kill dolphins for use as crab bait!”

59. “I have a deep-seated respect for parrots. As gifted as I am with all other wildlife, parrots have this uncanny desire to kill me. I’m not sure why, but they’re like my kryptonite!” 

60. “It never ceases to amaze me how cruel some people are. Do you think people would be so merciless and torturous if fish and sharks cried like babies when they felt pain?”

61. “For example, as you’re reading this paragraph, our whales and dolphins are still dying painful lingering deaths.”

62. “I believe that the time has come where if we don’t get animals into people’s hearts, they’re going to go extinct.”

Steve Irwin Quotes About Australia

63. “I’m a proud Australian—a very, very proud Australian.”

64. “You know, I’m Australian, and we have got the worst sense of humor. We are cruel to each other.”

65. “Australia has one of the worst mammalian extinction rates in the world.”

66. “Yeah, I think it’s an absolute disaster that Australia, the government, allowed kangaroo culling.”

67. “The first rule you learn when you come into Australia Zoo—when you enter into this family unit, is you leave your ego at the back door.”

68. “Statistically there’s only one crocodile-related human fatality per year in the whole of Australia.”

Funny Steve Irwin Quotes

69. “You’re far safer dealing with crocodiles and western diamondback rattlesnakes than the executives and the producers and all those sharks in the big MGM building.”

70. “Crikey means gee whiz, wow!”

71. “And that unusual squawking sound is actually the mating call of the rare—oh, it’s just an oboe player.”

72. “If something ever happens to me, people are gonna be like ‘we knew a croc would get him!”

Steve Irwin Quotes on Filming

73. “To hear people say that it was a publicity stunt, that I’m just like Michael Jackson, well, it just tears me up. It makes me sick to my stomach to be compared in that way.”

74. “When I talk to the camera, mate, it’s not like I’m talking to the camera. I’m talking to you because I want to whip you around and plunk you right there with me.”

75. “There’s a lot of research behind the scenes that you don’t get to see, but I have an instinct that my dad nurtured from when I was born. I was very lucky then.”

76. “So now what happens is the cameras follow me around and capture exactly what I’ve been doing since I was a boy. Only now we have a team of—you know, like 73 of us, and it’s gone beyond that.”

77. “My belief is that what comes across on the television is a capture of my enthusiasm and my passion for wildlife.”

78. “We’ve evolved from sitting back on our tripods and shooting wildlife films like they have been shot historically, which doesn’t work for us.”

79. “I bled a lot. I got hit across the face. We couldn’t film for seven days. I got hit, whacked, underwater, across the face. I finished the shot, got into the boat and blood started coming out.”

80. “My number one rule is to keep that camera rolling. Even if it’s shaky or slightly out of focus, I don’t give a rip. Even if a big old alligator is chewing me up I want to go down and go, ‘Crikey!’ just before I die. That would be the ultimate for me.”

81. “No matter where you go and what you do in America, you turn the tele on and you’re confronted with violence.”

82. “Scientific whaling, and other lies will be exposed and become atrocities of the past.”

More Steve Irwin Quotes

83. “See, I’ve always seen Jacques Cousteau as a hero, mate. He’s a legend—like my dad, just a legend. And so what he did for conservation in the ’60s through the ’70s was just phenomenal.”

84. “I have no problem giving donations, but I like to see my money go to work.”

85. “I think every single person in the world has to compromise.”

86. “I’ve got this wife that is so incredibly intelligent and strong that I reckon, between us, we’ll get through it.”

87. “To me, the story is the power of volunteers.”

88. “I had to jump off and jump on a plane at the ranger’s station airfield, flew straight down and walked off the plane into the awards ceremony.”

89. “What television has done is, it’s given me a stepping stone to get to some other countries and really wild destinations throughout this world, which perhaps I would have had to struggle to get to.”

90. “I have absolutely no problem with my ego or my staff’s ego.”

What Impact Did These Steven Irwin Quotes Bring To You?

Both humans and animals need shelter to survive on this planet. Aside from food, shelter is also one of our basic needs.

Steve Irwin showed so much passion on animals and wildlife conservation. Even if it cost his life, he showed the world what a true passionate environmentalist and conversationalist he is through the documentary series that he filmed. He wants the people to care and love not just the planet that we are living in, but also the animals—especially the wild ones.

Irwin’s passion is an eye-opener to us—we should learn how to take care of our environment, both plants and animals. We may never know what kind of environment our children will be in the future if we don’t care about it. We must act before it’s too late.

Did you learn something from Steven Irwin too? What’s your favorite Steven Irwin quote? Please add in the comment section. 

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.