Bindi Irwin's "special" moment she had with her father

Bindi Irwin has recalled the first time her late father Steve Irwin said he was “proud” of her.

The 18-year-old aspiring actress is the only daughter of the late wildlife expert, who died in 2006 at the age of 44 after he was attacked by a stingray that pierced his heart and caused him to bleed to death whilst filming documentary series ‘Ocean’s Deadliest’.

Steve and his wife Terri were keen to teach their brood - which also includes 13-year-old son Robert - all about their work, and Bindi has now revealed that she had a “special moment” with her father when she first wrestled a crocodile at the age of eight.

She said: “I was eight years old … we caught a female crocodile that we were going to put a tracking device on. This one day on our very last croc trip with Dad he decided I was old enough to be able to jump on the head of the crocodile. I was this little eight-year-old girl and Dad goes, ‘I believe in you. You can do this, sweetheart.’

“I just remember how excited I was that Dad believed in me to jump on the crocodile’s head. It was actually our last family photo together, this photo of me holding onto the crocodile’s head and my mom and dad and brother all on the crocodile as well. He believed in me, and all I wanted to do was make him proud. This was a really special moment and a really special photo.”

And Bindi says her father was “so wonderful” because he wasn’t interested in being remembered, as long as people heard his message about respecting the wildlife around them.

Bindi told Us Weekly magazine: "Dad was always so wonderful because he always said, ‘I don’t care if people remember me. I care if people remember my message.’

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