Robert Irwin got 'death rolled' by a 14ft crocodile he named 'Jimmy Fallon' and survived
Robert Irwin has opened up about an extremely scary encounter with a crocodile, ironically named after TV show host Jimmy Fallon.
The 22-year-old son of ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin has already had an adrenaline-fueled career with reptiles, but that’s not all.
Irwin has showed he has many talents, taking home the crown in season 35 of Dancing With The Stars in November 2025.
But DWTS' gruelling training and expert level spins were probably a walk in the park for the star, who revealed he had once been ‘death rolled’ by a reptile.
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Recalling his near death experience with Jimmy Fallon (the human) on The Tonight Show, Irwin explained: “We research crocodiles in the wild to, like, better conserve them, right? So, the way you do that–my dad came up with this–is you actually have to jump on them, right?”
However, things didn’t end well for the star, as he told Fallon his namesake almost had him for prey.
“So I jumped on the back of Jimmy Fallon [the crocodile] and get this. The little he death-rolled me,” Irwin recalled. “I jumped onto him. I kid you not. 14 feet of crocodile, big croc, death rolls me,” he said.
Irwin then revealed he was stuck underneath the 700 pound reptile with his arm hanging out.
“And I'm just like, ‘What do I do?’” he questioned.
Luckily, Irwin managed to escape from the big croc, who rolled back over, leaving the DWTS winner able to escape.
For those left scratching their heads at the term 'death roll', as the words say, it’s not a nice sight.
A death roll is actually a hunting and feeding technique in which a crocodile clamps on to its prey. As the word rolling goes, the reptiles violently spin their body.
Yikes!
Irwin hasn’t been scared off however, as his latest venture saw the 22-year-old take on 100 crocodiles. Well, kind of…
Off the back of his Dancing With The Stars win last year, Irwin told PEOPLE he’ll be ‘back in Australia for a few weeks in the middle of nowhere,’ before returning to his crocodile research expedition in the middle of Northern Australia.
However, his most recent venture is a new brand partnership with Columbia Sportswear, in which the ad shoot saw him around hundreds of inflatable crocs.
“I've spent my entire life around crocs, but I’ve never faced a challenge quite like this. I never thought I’d be outrunning dozens of crocodiles in the middle of the Aussie outback,” he told Business Wire.
Well, it’s certainly much safer!
Topics: Animals, Steve Irwin
Kiesha Dosanjh