Wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall at the Australia Zoo? Well, that's Treavor Smith's job at the zoo, sort of. He films all the action at the zoo for The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and he's Steve's personal camera guy, responsible for filming everything that happens at the zoo, from the birth of the newest koala or wombat to the arrival of Bindi Sue.
Instead of Steve filming the birth of the Irwins' firstborn, there was Treavor making sure not to miss the shot. Before filming his first human childbirth, he was nervously, yet persistently, tapping on the door of Terri's hospital room while she was in labor.
"I hear Terri moaning in the room, and I'm knocking on the door trying to get in," he says. "The nurse is telling me I have time yet, but I'm thinking, I'm not going to miss this."
Sure enough, he had 20 minutes to wait for Bindi Sue to arrive, but it was worth the wait and he got the shot. It's these personal moments that are almost more exciting than filming Steve's close calls.
He was even the second person to find out that Terri was pregnant. He was with her after a visit with her doctor, so expect to see that in an upcoming episode of The Crocodile Hunter Diaries. And he will most likely be on hand to film the birth of the next Irwin baby.
"I get to see parts of their lives as well as feel life situations with them, and sometimes it really gets to your heart," Treavor says.
Treavor, who has been working at the zoo for the last four years, says Steve makes it easy to get close enough to film these personal moments and wildlife because it all tells a story.
"Listening to him is the key," Treavor says. "It's the most important part of getting the story.
"It's almost too easy," he says. "You're zooming in on this little snake and Steve's telling its story. It's really an amazing experience."
Treavor is filming the behind-the-scenes action from Croc Hunter Live this week for Steve, while Craig Lucas carries the D-cam — a digital camera transmitting its pictures to an antenna atop a scaffold at the Triple Croc Pond — into the muck with Goldie at his feet and Kelsey tugging at his belt loop to keep him from succumbing to a croc defending its territory.
This week you'll see Treavor and Craig's work in "Casper – The White Crocodile"; "Whale Sharks of the Wild West"; "Crocodile Coast"; and "River of the Damned."
Update From the Set of Croc Hunter Live
Yesterday, during a press conference after Croc Hunter Live, Steve said that while the move was "smooth as a zipper," he was indeed worried about his crocs Monty and Goldie during the move.
"We were in real danger," Steve says of the Monty capture. "If that rope had busted, everyone would have gone over the fence."
With Goldie, his concern was more for her safety than for that of others when he pinned her and put her in the box.
"She's a short girl. She's a blonde. She's got feelings," Steve says, but adds that he's not at all worried how the crocs will fare after their exciting move by helicopter, because Goldie will be the key to Monty's adjustment.
"She's going to prop him up and get him back on track," he says.
In fact, after talking with Kelsey Engle, of The Croc Hunter Diaries and head curator at the zoo, we learned that not only were Monty, Goldie and Occy fine after the airlift, so were all the zoo's other animals.
As curator of the zoo, it was Kelsey's job to have staff posted at all the enclosures closest to the lift that may have a problem.
"I told everyone to be prepared, even though we were sure everything would be all right," she says.
Before the lift, they were a little concerned about the zoo's gray kangaroos, whose habitat is just beyond the food court and Triple Croc Pond seating. The roos have problems with loud sudden noises, but the gradual sustained roar of the chopper seemed not to bother the sometimes skittish marsupials.
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