Does Steve Irwin have a turtle?

Answer 1

Steve Irwin, aka the Crocodile Hunter, died on 4 September 2006 after being impaled through the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia.

Australia Zoo, the flora and fauna park founded by Steve, did have a resident giant Galapagos land tortoise who was named Harriet. Harriet was believed to have been born around about 1830 and died on 23 June 2006.

It has been reported that Harriet was first collected by Charles Darwin. There have been letters found, written by Charles Darwin in 1860, in which he refers to tortoises from a previous expedition in 1835, one of which would have been Harriet. She arrived in Australia with John Wickham (a friend of Charles Darwin's) in 1842 and lived at Newstead House in Brisbane, Queensland until she was donated to the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane in 1960. A worker at the Botanic Gardens named her Harry, mistakenly believing the tortoise to be male. "Harry" was moved on to Fleay's Fauna Sanctuary on the Gold Coast, Queensland, where she was determined to be female and her name was changed to Harriet. Harriet was moved to Australia Zoo at the Sunshine Coast, Queensland in 1987. She became one of Australia Zoo's iconic animals and celebrated her 175th birthday with much celebration and thousands of visitors and vip's in 2005. Birthday cards and gifts were sent to her from all over the world. Unfortunately Harriet became ill in 2006 and died from heart failure.