Sander
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Steve Irwin diesAfter battling the most enormous monsters, the most poisoness snakes and terrifying insects for years, Steve Irwin was stung in his heart by a ray and died almost instantly.
I find it ironic that the man who, with all respect should have his head bitten off hundreds of times, gets killed by a (as I understand it) a relatively harmless creature.
Of course I feel sorry for his wife and kids (one of which was named after a croc and a dog) but at the same time I hope I'll never hear that terrible accent of his again.
In nomine Patri, et Filii, et Dasyatidae
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André in Zuid-Afrika
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Re: Steve Irwin diesYeh, I thought of the irony as well.
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Joanne
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It's insensitive, but I have to ask: was he bothering the stingray? He's of the "let's learn about animals by poking them with sticks and making them angry" school of naturalism...
At least he died doing what he loved, he had nice family, and he had an interesting life. I hope he wasn't in a lot of pain.
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André in Zuid-Afrika
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A very good question.
| Quote: | 'TV pushed Croc Hunter too far'
04/09/2006 20:11 - (SA)
London - Conservationists mourned the death of Australia's flamboyant "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin, on Monday, and one suggested that TV's demands for sensation had pushed him to be too daring.
"He clearly took a lot of risks and television encouraged him to do that," said Ray Mears, a Briton whose television programs have included Extreme Survival.
"It's a shame that television audiences need that to be attracted to wildlife," said Mears.
"Dangerous animals, you leave them alone because they will defend themselves. Nature defends itself, it isn't all about hugging animals and going 'ahh'."
'Went further than was sensible'
The ebullient Irwin, 44, died after being stung by a stingray barb in a diving accident about 2 000km north off Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef.
"What he did was so extreme that it isn't surprising that he died. Just the same, it is very sad," said Kees Oscar Ekeli, a marine biologist and director of the Bergen Aquarium in Norway.
Although Irwin "went further than was sensible", Ekeli credited the Australian for doing "a fantastic job of spreading information about biology... and nature's dangerous species."
"In the modern world's noisy media picture, he used extreme methods to break through, and that is exactly what he did," said Ekeli.
British naturalist David Bellamy said he cried when he heard of Irwin's death.
"The thing with Steve was he mixed damn good science with show business and I don't know anyone else who did that," Bellamy said.
Leaving an immense hole
British zoologist Mark O'Shea, who also has worked on television, said Irwin had made a massive contribution to conservation in Australia.
"It is going to leave an immense hole," said O'Shea, who credited Irwin with inspiring a new generation of conservationists.
"A lot of people who now want to study biology and work with animals may not have considered it before they watched him on television," O'Shea said.
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| Quote: | Irwin killed by 'peaceful fish'
04/09/2006 10:28 - (SA)
Sydney - The irony of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's death is that he was not killed by one of the deadly creatures he regularly handled, but by a relatively peaceful fish, scientists said on Monday.
Irwin, renowned worldwide as a fearless environmentalist happy to handle crocodiles and snakes on his television show, was killed Monday by a stingray - a flattish, diamond-shaped fish which rarely attacks humans.
"They are normally not aggressive and use their long barbed tail to protect themselves from predators such as sharks and killer whales," said Sean Connell, a marine ecologist at the University of Adelaide.
"They feed on tiny animals on the sea floor. I have never heard of an unprovoked attack from a stingray."
Despite their name, it is not the venom from the sting that is most dangerous, scientists say.
Irwin was killed when a stingray barb punctured his chest as he was filming on the famed Great Barrier Reef.
"What happened to Steve Irwin is like being stabbed in the heart," said Geoff Isbister, a clinical toxicologist at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle on Australia's east coast.
'Stingrays only sting in defence'
"It has little to do with the venom and all to do with the trauma caused by the barb of the stingray."
One other person was known to have died in Australia from a similar injury to the chest, but most stingray injuries resulted from people stepping on them in shallow water and getting a barb in the ankle, he said.
"Stingrays only sting in defence; they're not aggressive animals so the animal must have felt threatened," said Bryan Fry, director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne.
"It would have to have been a large ray with a disc size of up to 2.5m.
"The stingray's venom would not have been a factor. While extremely painful, stingray venom is rarely lethal."
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Dminor
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:( :cry:
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Porthos
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Crickey! It almost bit my hand off!I have been predicting that guy's death for I don't know how long now! Finally my prophecy has come true. This is one of the rare occasions where I wish I was wrong.
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