Steve Irwin's Youngest Child, Robert, Took A Cheerful Selfie With A Giant Aldabra Tortoise Named Igloo

Apr 02, 2020 by apost team

Like many of us, the late Steve Irwin’s 16-year-old son, Robert, is in self isolation with his family at their home in Queensland, Australia — except Robert and his family live at a zoo. At their unusual home, Robert posted a photo of himself and his special “self isolation buddy” — a giant tortoise — on Tuesday.

According to the zoo’s website, the 390 pound (180 kilogram) giant Aldabra tortoise’s name is Igloo. Igloo is among two Aldabra tortoise’s, a protected species, who live at the Irwin’s zoo. After the youngest child of the Crocodile Hunter posted a selfie of Igloo and himself smiling at the camera, the post received hundreds of thousands of likes on social media.

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Robert’s Instagram account is full of other cute photos with animals — tortoises, kangaroos, tigers, bats — given his unusual living circumstances. According to CNN, Robert’s grandparents opened the zoo back in the 1970s, and ever since it has remained in the family. That came in extra handy last week when Robert’s older sister, 21-year-old Bindi Irwin, got married at the end of March. Despite the call to stay home and avoid groups in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Bindi, who wanted to get married in a zoo anyway, was able to still hold her wedding ceremony in her backyard — the Australia Zoo’s candlelit garden, according to CNN.

The unconventional wedding made headlines after Bindi posted photos of herself and her new husband, 23-year-old Chandler Powell, on Instagram. “We held a small ceremony and I married my best friend. There are no words to describe the amount of love and light in my heart right now,” Bindi wrote in an Instagram post that has accumulated more than 1 million likes, accompanied by a photo of the newlyweds kissing.

And because the Irwin family all live together on the zoo grounds, Bindi’s mother and Robert were able to attend the wedding without violating the coronavirus lockdown. But despite the silver lining that the wedding didn’t have to be outright cancelled, Bindi did lament the fact that she didn’t get to have guests or celebrate the wedding exactly as planned.

“We’ve planned this beautiful day for nearly a year and had to change everything, as we didn’t have guests at our wedding,” she wrote on Instagram. “This was a very difficult decision but important to keep everyone safe. We wish all of our friends and family could have been there with us, however it’s lovely that we will be able to share photos and videos.”

Starting on midnight of March 25, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that he would close large parts of the economy and would restrict gatherings in order to slow the spread of the highly contagious novel coronavirus, according to The Guardian. He urged Australians everywhere to “stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary you go out.”

Despite the necessary albeit inconvenient restriction, even if the Irwin family does stay home and abide by the new restrictions, they’ll have an entire zoo-full of animals to keep them company.

Would you want to live in a zoo? Are you big fans of the Irwin's? Let us know and pass this on to all your animal loving friends and family members.