{"id":262864,"date":"2025-11-04T21:51:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262864\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T21:51:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:51:22","slug":"legendary-wild-saltie-loved-by-steve-moved-to-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262864\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Legendary\u2019 wild saltie loved by Steve moved to zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A large saltwater crocodile that featured in Steve and Terri Irwin\u2019s filming projects in the \u201990s has been safely relocated from a Cairns facility to Australia Zoo.<\/p>\n<p>Affectionately named \u2018Old Faithful\u2019 by Steve in his heyday, the croc was removed from Lakefield National Park in September for public safety.<\/p>\n<p>Rehoming options were considered, and it was determined that Australia Zoo was the best-suited facility to accept and care for a crocodile of this size and significance.<\/p>\n<p>Australia Zoo safely transported the crocodile from Cairns to the Sunshine Coast last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>It was removed from the wild after the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) received reports of its repeated and concerning behaviour that was escalating, as a direct result of it being fed by people.<\/p>\n<p>Want more free local news? Follow Sunshine Coast News on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scnews2020\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/au.linkedin.com\/company\/sunshine-coast-news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sunshinecoastnews_\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au\/2020\/12\/02\/subscribe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sign up<\/a> for our FREE daily news email.<\/p>\n<p>This was confirmed by Australia Zoo on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DQkp85xEodd\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> account this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter decades ruling his waterhole, in Far North Queensland, people not being croc wise sadly meant he was deemed a \u201cproblem crocodile\u201d by the government and he was removed,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time we respect crocs\u2019 homes and let them thrive undisturbed in their natural habitats. Avoiding them is simple, stay out of the water and away from the water\u2019s edge, don\u2019t leave food lying around the banks and you\u2019ll never have a problem with a crocodile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe couldn\u2019t stand by and let him be sent to a crocodile farm\u2026so we brought him to Australia Zoo to give the\u00a0big guy a forever home. We know Steve would\u00a0be over the moon\u00a0that we could have him here, in the sanctuary that he built,\u00a0safe and sound to\u00a0live\u00a0out the\u00a0rest of his\u00a0days!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-129189\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SCN100124-croc-love-language-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\"  \/>Crocodile habitats at Australia Zoo.<\/p>\n<p>On the same post, Terri added her mixed feelings on welcoming Old Faithful onto her Sunshine Coast property.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I wish he could have stayed in his home in North Queensland, I am thankful that we were given the opportunity to give him a new habitat where he will be safe from human interference,\u201d she commented.<\/p>\n<p>The smooth transition for the crocodile was made possible by the collaborative efforts of Australia Zoo and DETSI, highlighting the shared goal of wildlife conservation and education.<\/p>\n<p>DETSI has advised the animal is considered an icon crocodile under the\u00a0Nature Conservation (Estuarine Crocodile) Conservation Plan 2018, meaning it must be rehomed to a licenced crocodile facility to promote education on crocodile ecology and conservation.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large saltwater crocodile that featured in Steve and Terri Irwin\u2019s filming projects in the \u201990s has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-262864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}