The late great Steve Irwin’s son Robert has taken on the animal-wrangling mantle previously held by his father, and it’s freaking out some fans.
Posting a video filmed during the nocturnal hours on Instagram yesterday, the 20-year-old conservationist could be seen encountering a death adder that was attempting to cross a road.
Irwin, whose father garnered global fame by presenting The Crocodile Hunter before tragically passing away in 2006, stayed a sensible distance from the snake while explaining its nature to his social media followers.
For some of those watching though, the footage proved extremely stressful.
On his haunches beside the critter, Irwin told the camera: “Well talk about an unassuming snake. This, believe it or not, is one of Australia’s most dangerous snakes and one of the most venomous snakes on Earth.
“This is a death adder, the toxicity in their venom is absolutely incredible and the speed of their strike is pretty much unrivaled—they are truly an absolute weapon, but one of the chillest snakes you’ll ever see. This is a big one, a beautiful big death adder and he’s just crossing the road.”
Explaining that he didn’t have a pressure bandage, the Australian star wisely decided not to pick it up for the camera to get a closer look.
Irwin went on to mention how this was “the coolest example” of how snakes are not out to hurt humans, adding: “This is one of the most dangerous snakes on the face of the Earth and he knows it, and even still he’s just chilling out. He’s just trying to cross the road.”
To illustrate the animal’s commonly misinterpreted behavior, he switched positions by standing in its direct path. The death adder proceeded to coil up defensively, with Irwin noting how “a lot of people confuse that for a snake trying to get them, that’s not what it’s doing, just stay out of their way.”
Newsweek has reached out to Robert Irwin for comment.
His video currently boasts 158,000 likes, yet many Instagram users were frantic in their reactions.
“Don’t be so close Robert!! Geez you are giving me shivers,” read one of the comments, while another person shared: “Please be careful. We don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t grab him!,” someone else added.
A different commenter, who grew up watching his famous father do exactly the same type of thing, deemed Irwin’s homemade documentary “so trippy.”
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