In only one week she has been interviewed on Larry King Live, danced with the Wiggles in Los Angeles, eaten with Hollywood stars including Russell Crowe, appeared on the Late Show in New York and, last night, addressed the American media elite in Washington.

However, as controversy grows over the extraordinary exposure of Bindi Irwin since the death her father, Steve Irwin, four months ago, the crocodile hunter’s widow, Terri, yesterday hit back at critics during their tour of America.

Since arriving in the US last week, Bindi has received the kind of media attention usually heaped upon an Oscar winner, as questions mount over whether she is being exploited to keep the multimillion dollar wildlife empire built by her father as lucrative as ever.

Critics are unnerved that, since Irwin died on September 4 after a stingray’s poisonous barb punctured his heart, Bindi has released a music CD, an exercise DVD and a clothing line, and begun a regular magazine column. She will soon star in a new television show, Bindi, The Jungle Girl.

One columnist in Toronto, where the Irwins are going next month, wrote: “Why can’t I shake this nagging feeling that something is amiss, that Bindi is destined to suffer some future breakdown?” After a moving and passionate speech in the National Press Club, in Washington, last night about her late husband’s fight to protect wildlife, Terri Irwin was asked if she and her daughter were doing too much too soon. She replied: “Grief is a road every individual travels in their own way. Bindi said that she wanted to get back to filming right away. We wanted to get right back out there and stand up proud.”

In an earlier interview, Mrs Irwin said: “I think Bindi’s schedule is a lot easier than a lot of children’s. There’s a lot of kids who have soccer practice, piano lessons, dance lessons, and parents start feeling like a chauffeur and kids start to feel overwhelmed. Bindi is certainly not like that.” Bindi, introduced as the Press Club’s “youngest ever speaker” — previous addresses have been given there by Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and John F. Kennedy — said: “When I grow up I want to be just like my Daddy. I really want to get the message out that all wildlife is so important to our ecosystem.”

She described crocodiles as “sweet and gentle” and said that she preferred poisonous snakes to reporters.

The family lives in Australia Zoo, Queensland, Irwin’s giant wildlife park centred on crocodiles, and Bindi is home-schooled. As the US tour demonstrated, she has inherited her father’s confidence and love of showmanship.

Bindi was asked by King what she liked about being on stage. “I just like the feeling of all the people actually cheering for me and saying, ‘Bindi, Bindi’. I just feel like I’ve got a place there. It feels really good when I get on stage.”

During an appearance on the ABC Good Morning America programme, Bindi was asked by another girl what it felt liked to have “so many kids look up to you and your father”.

She said: “It’s really nice because people actually like us and that’s really nice.” Her mother cut in: “And it’s good, too, getting the wildlife message out.”

Bob Irwin, Bindi’s three-year-old brother, has been kept out of the spotlight on their US tour. When he was only a few days old his father fed crocodiles before a live audience holding the newborn in his arm, a gesture that sparked an international outcry.

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