I think my path would have always gone back to or delivered me to wildlife. I think wildlife is just like a magnet, and it’s something that I can’t help.
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.
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.
You know, I’m Australian, and we have got the worst sense of humor. We are cruel to each other.
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.
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.
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.
I believe sustainable use is the greatest propaganda in wildlife conservation at the moment.
Yeah, I think it’s an absolute disaster that Australia, the government, allowed kangaroo culling.
Crikey means gee whiz, wow! Crikey, mate. 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.
But I put my life on the line to save animals.
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.
I sincerely believe that there’s room for cutting down trees for forestry and grazing, so as we all get to eat. Everyone has to compromise.
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!
The first crocodile I ever caught was at nine years of age, and it was a rescue.
Crocodiles. I’ve been catching them since I was nine. No problem.
I probably don’t show fear, but I suffer from fear like everyone else.
We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.
Where I live if someone gives you a hug it’s from the heart. I’ve had these blokes in Hollywood hug me trying to make out I’m their friend and as soon as I turn their back they take out a big bunch of knives and stab me in the back. I feel sorry for these people because they are so shallow.
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.