Robert Irwin Said He Was "Death-Rolled" by a Crocodile During a Violent Encounter

Thanks both to his sunny personality and his super-famous father, Robert Irwin has earned himself plenty of fans in the United States. The Dancing With the Stars champion recently made an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, and said that he had been "death-rolled" by a crocodile who has the same name as the late-night host.

Following the news that Robert had been attacked by a crocodile, many wanted to better understand whether he was OK, and what exactly happened. Here's what we know.

“You know what? He's not a baby anymore,” Robert said. “I named this crocodile Jimmy Fallon years ago, and he's now what we call a ‘Boss croc' — he's huge.”

Robert said that the incident occurred while he was researching ways to better conserve wild crocodiles and came across a risky method that his father had pioneered more than 20 years ago.

“So the way you do that — my dad came up with this — is that you actually have to jump on them,” he told the host, who was understandably shocked. “So I jumped on the back of [my crocodile] Jimmy Fallon and get this — he death-rolled me.”

Death rolls are a move crocodiles use to capture and kill their prey, and often involve attempting to drown them by lying on top of them while they are underwater.

“I jumped onto him, I kid you not, 14 feet of crocodile … death-rolls me,” Robert explained. “So I'm stuck underneath him with my arm hanging out, I've got probably … 700 pounds on top of me, and I'm just like, ‘What do I do?'"

In the end, he didn't have to do anything to ensure his own freedom. “Luckily, he rolled back the other way, and I was fine,” said Robert, adding, “But he's a goer, Jimmy!”

As that story indicates, Robert's passion for conservation and for animals is very similar to his father's. Robert's father, Steve, died at 44 years old after an encounter with a stingray in Australia, and as this story indicates, Steve's death when Robert was just 3 years old has not made Robert less likely to follow in his footsteps. During his time on The Tonight Show, Robert also discussed his experience on Dancing With the Stars, including a touching performance that he dedicated to his mom.

“This was like a turning point for me with this show," he recalled of that dance. "It was the first time I really told kind of my journey of grief and the way that she helped me through that."

Robert explained that his mom was key in helping him through his father's death.

"To use your body as this expression of self, to share such a deeply personal story through the lens of gratitude for my mom — that's when I realized dances, it's storytelling that's all it is,” he continued.