Robert Irwin is recalling a horrifying near-fatal experience.
In a recent guest appearance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, the 22-year-old conservationist opened up about a spine-chilling near-death moment he faced during his childhood.
Speaking to the host, Irwin spoke about how a massive 14-foot crocodile – whom he had named Jimmy Fallon – once grabbed him in a “death roll” during an encounter.
“He’s not a baby anymore. I named this crocodile Jimmy Fallon, like, years ago, and he’s now what we call a boss croc. He’s huge. Because 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,” he said.
The Australian zookeeper continued, “I jumped onto him. I kid you not, 14 foot of crocodile, big croc, death-rolls me. So I’m stuck underneath him with my arm hanging out. I’ve got like probably, I don’t know, maybe 700 pounds on top of me. And I’m just like, ‘What do I do?’ And luckily he rolled back the other way, and I was fine. But he’s a goer.”
Robert Irwin’s terrifying revelation comes months after he won Season 34 of the US Dancing with the Stars on November 25, 2025.
