Steve Irwin Received a Powerful Hollywood Tribute After His Passing

Steve Irwin spent his life trying to convince people that animals deserved care and protection.

Television gave him an enormous platform.

Australia Zoo gave him a place to put his ideas into practice.

His family gave him something even more important.

A reason for the mission to continue beyond his own lifetime.

Twenty years later, Terri is still protecting that work.

Bindi is raising another generation with the same appreciation for wildlife.

Robert continues bringing conservation to audiences of his own.

And five-year-old Grace knows the man the rest of the world called the Crocodile Hunter simply as Grandpa Crocodile.

That is why Steve’s story did not end on September 4, 2006.

The television programs remained.

The zoo remained.

The conservation work remained.

Most importantly, the family remained.

And two decades later, what once looked like the legacy of one extraordinary wildlife presenter has become something much larger.

It became a family mission passed from one generation to the next.

The Hollywood star honors what Steve achieved.

Australia Zoo continues what he started.

But the clearest evidence of what he left behind may be something far less public.

A little girl watching an old documentary and feeling that the grandfather she never met somehow still knows her.

For Bindi, that realization changed the meaning of her father’s legacy.

It was always about wildlife.

But underneath everything else, it was also about love.