BRISBANE, Australia, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin could be an official Australian tourism ambassador, despite a global backlash over the baby-and-crocodile incident.
Irwin was condemned this month for taking his infant son into the crocodile pen at his Australian Zoo on the Queensland coast. He then fed a 13-foot crocodile a dead chicken with one hand, holding his baby in the other.
Till then, Irwin, the Queensland finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards, was a cult hero in the United States, one of Australia's most important tourism markets.
Other contenders for the celebrity post, the Brisbane Courier-Mail reports, are swimmer Ian Thorpe, cricketer Steve Waugh and supermodel Megan Gale. The ambassadors will help sell Australia as a holiday destination in an $235 million (Australian) overhaul of the nation's tourism industry.
Federal tourism minister, Joe Hockey said, "He's done a lot for Australian conservation, he's done a lot for Australia internationally."
