Young Fearless Zookeeper Could Be The Next Steve Irwin

#1

Michael Holston is just 24 years old and has been a huge Steve Irwin fan since he was a small child. Now, the young man follows in the footsteps of the late great crocodile hunter. His social media accounts are full of photos of him with tons of wild, exotic animals.

#2

"Day in and day out I strive like many others just to accomplish the things Irwin has done for our wildlife and planet!” Holston said. “I always wanted to be like him… and I still do!"

"I want to show everybody the smallest wildlife and the most dangerous wildlife,” he added. “Get close as possible. Hold it, hug it, touch it, kiss it."

#3

Michael can be found on Instagram under the handle @therealtarzann. He has over 169,000 Instagram followers who adore his fun animal posts.

#4

His photos range from taking baths with his pet anaconda to pics of him holding little monkeys.

#5

Holston works as a manager at an exotic reptiles farm. He rescues, breeds, buys and sells exotic amphibians, reptiles, and some mammals. He says he does everything from building and cleaning cages, to watering and feeding the animals, to building and cleaning cages, and taking pictures and posting them online while taking orders and answering phone calls.

#6

He has also worked as a zookeeper at a zoo in Miami where he was trained on how to do enrichment and trained on how to work with dangerous animals like tigers and chimpanzees.

#7

The thing that is most important to him is challenging people's misconceptions about him as a tattooed black man. He says this is the last career that people expect him to work at, but he loves it.

#8

"I just started putting some stuff out there on social media, recently. I’ve always been on social media, but I didn’t really put the footwork in of emailing companies, asking them to repost, stuff like that," Holston said.

"When I did, I knew I had some mad content. I knew once the world started seeing it, they’d be like, ‘Oh man! This guy! He’s crazy, and he’s black!"

#9

Michael is definitely an inspiration. He is proof positive that anyone from any background can pursue what they love and have the job they dream of if they work hard enough.

#10

The funny thing about Holston is that he used to be a huge arachnophobe, but has now conquered his fear of spiders through his work. He loved the animals, but for a long time a spider would still totally freak him out until one day he realized that spiders can be pretty cool too just like the rest of the animals that he loves interacting with.

#11

The young man says that someday, he would like to have his own wildlife series like Steve Irwin. Here is to hoping that this awesome young man is able to make his dreams come true and be as big as our old friend Steve Irwin.