Photo Richard Giles, CC BY 2.0 — not the Sri Lanka shoot
May 2004 · Tissamaharama, Sri Lanka
Nine dayswith theCrocodile Hunter
The nine days our founder spent guiding Steve Irwin through Yala — and the reason we still run safaris the way we do.
00 — Tissamaharama
“Mate, show me your snakes!”
A khaki-clad whirlwind leapt out of my jeep, slapped me on the back, and boomed six words that changed how I run every safari since.
Steve Irwin · May 2004
01 — The brief
He didn’t come for the postcard
Steve came because our farmers were dying. Sri Lanka has one of the worst snakebite burdens on earth, and almost nobody outside the island knew.
~80,000
bites a year
~400
deaths a year
70%
from one viper
02 — The paddy
Where the vipers actually live
He waded into the rice paddies with the workers, walked the tea rows with the pickers, stood in the mud with the buffalo herders — and found Russell's vipers living right there among them.
03 — The kitchens
Relocate it. Don’t kill it.
For nine days we lifted cobras out of village kitchens and carried kraits back to the scrub. A snake in the house doesn't have to mean a death — in the family or in the snake.
04 — The lagoon
First man-eater, face to face
It was the episode where Steve went head-to-head with a man-eating mugger crocodile for the first time in his life. I was standing right there. I have never seen a man so happy.
05 — The village
Barefoot, batting, laughing loudest
Between shoots he joined a street-cricket match against the village kids. No translator, no crew, no cameras. Just a big Australian losing badly and loving it.
06 — What stayed
He didn’t train us. He infected us.
By day three even my shyest tracker was cheering every time a viper went safely into the bag. That is the thing I kept.
07 — The creed
“If we can teach people about wildlife, they’ll want to save it.”
Steve Irwin · 1962–2006
Twenty-one years on
How nine days still shape every drive
He was here for nine days. He has been in the jeep ever since.
On the track
Greener game drives
Low-emission jeeps, a strict 50-metre leopard buffer, and a hard cap on guests per vehicle. The animal's day matters more than your photo.
In the villages
Wildlife Warrior spirit
A share of every booking funds local snake-bite first-aid workshops — the outreach work Steve cared about most.
On every drive
Teach, don't just point
Our trackers explain behaviour, not just spot a tail in the grass. That was the whole of Steve's method.
Your part
Become a Wildlife Warrior
Booking an ethical safari isn’t just a holiday choice. It’s a pledge to carry the torch.
Walk in Steve’s footsteps
Join me on a dawn drive through Yala
I’ll point out the very lagoon where he filmed the cobra release — and if the village kids are about, maybe hand you the cricket bat for a rematch.
This page is Ajith Priyantha’s personal recollection of guiding a film crew in May 2004. Ajith Safari Jeep Tours is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Australia Zoo, Wildlife Warriors or the Irwin family. “Island of Snakes” is series 5, episode 9 of The Crocodile Hunter, first broadcast 16 June 2004. Snakebite figures from a national survey published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Photographs of Steve Irwin on this page were taken by Richard Giles at Australia Zoo in December 2005 and are used under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; they are not from the Sri Lanka shoot. Steve Irwin, 1962–2006.