India, Oct. 14 -- For most people, a major purchase is usually a house or a car. Terri Irwin had a very different one in 2015. According to Australia Zoo, she bought 33,000 acres of adjoining land, about 52 square miles, and added it to Mourachan, a conservation property in St George, Queensland. Today the zoo says it and Wildlife Warriors hold 117,174 acres there, about 183 square miles, of one of the rarest habitat types in Australia.

The story begins with Steve Irwin. He set up the property after suspecting woma pythons lived there, and the zoo says he was right. Farming had heavily degraded the area in recent years. After that damage, Steve and Terri began to repair the land. They planned to keep the semi-arid ecosystems intact and c...