why'd it have to be snakes? Ask Animal Planet's new guru
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/...r-snake18.html
October 18, 2004
BY DERRIK J. LANG
Advertisement
NEW YORK -- Animal Planet has a new snake in the grass, and his name is Austin Stevens.
Keepers at the cable network are billing Stevens, a k a the ''Snakemaster,'' and his new show as the slithery descendant of ''The Crocodile Hunter'' Steve Irwin, but the South African snake wrangler doesn't even know Irwin by name.
During a call from his home in Namibia, Stevens said he'd only seen ''bits and pieces of the Australian guy.''
''He seems to be pretty good,'' Stevens said.
But what Stevens lacks in Animal Planet host familiarity, he makes up for in snake knowledge. The 54-year-old is a photographer and herpetologist who has studied hundreds of species.
During the 13 episodes of ''Austin Stevens: Snakemaster,'' airing at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Stevens travels from Arizona to Borneo in search of the world's rarest reptiles, such as the Western diamondback rattlesnake and the king cobra.
''People fear them so much and they're so misunderstood,'' said Stevens, who's been bitten so many times he only keeps track of the lethal ones.
Although Stevens has hosted Animal Planet specials, this is his first U.S. series. ''I don't set anything up,'' said Stevens. ''I'm not a narrator. I'm just a little bushman who knows something about wildlife." AP
