Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin has sparked outrage in Australia after holding his one-month-old baby just metres from the mouth of a giant croc.


Child advocates branded the wildlife expert "reckless" for dangling son Bob near the mouth of the 4m reptile as he fed it a dead chicken.

Wife Terry stood nearby during the publicity stunt at his Australia Zoo in Queensland.

Irwin then walked his son along the ground to the edge of the crocodile pool, according to Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper.

Australian Family Association spokesman Bill Muehlenberg told the paper: "Most parents would cringe at the sight of such things. One slip, one fall and he is the crocodile's lunch."

The incident provoked complaints from the public to local police and the Families Department who are looking into the incident.

But Irwin told the paper he was surprised by the response to Bob's "croc-feeding debut".

"My kids are going to grow up here at the zoo catching crocodiles so they have to be aware of what's around them at the earliest possible stage."

SYDNEY, Australia -- "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin snapped back at critics who have accused him of endangering his month-old son's life by holding him while hand-feeding a crocodile, saying Monday that he would even do it again.

"What I would do differently is I would make sure there were no cameras around," Irwin told Network Nine television's nationally broadcast "A Current Affair" program.

"When I was a very small boy, my dad did the same for me. In fact when I was 9 years old, he let me jump, restrain and capture my first crocodile."

Police said Sunday that Irwin would not be charged with violating any laws.

Irwin promised to give "A Current Affair" a videotape from his Australian Zoo reptile park where he staged the act, which he said would prove it was not as dangerous as the public believed.

"(The tape) will give you another angle so all that ugly stacked-up vision of me looking like I endangered my child will be put to bed very quickly," he said.

hmmm
(in scottish accent) "the other white meat, baby!"

steve irwin was the most moranic