BREAKING NEWS - Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dead at age 44

A great Aussie no matter what people thought of him. His enthusiasm was infectious and his love of animals unquestionable. Apparently killed by a sting-ray barb through his chest.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20349888-2,00.html

As I was waking up, I heard a bit of a story on the tv about someone being killed by a stingray but I thought nothing of it at the time. They were talking about a camera crew which I thought was a bit strange. Then later on they repeated the story and explained that it was Steve Irwin who died and it bowled me over. It was such a shock. He was around dangerous animals all the time but he was rarely in any real danger because he knew what he was doing. I feel sorry for his wife and his daughter. It's tragic.

Too sad, and I too feel sorry for his wife, daughter Binbi and his son Bob. He could handle every animal on land no matter how dangerous, but sadly he became the first person to be killed by a stingray at 44...

stingray barb from australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin
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This is how I'll remember him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlxJ-UBaTaU


RIP, Steve...

Wow, that's sad, I really feel sorry for his son and daughter, Bob and Bindi Sue, and for his wife Terri.

I really enjoyed his shows, and his love for animals.

RIP.

I didn't realise how internationally famous he'd become. Being in the UK I just thought his shows were here through the old empire connections - plenty of Aussie stuff comes here. But even Melissa Ashley has posted about it in her blog site saying that he was an inspiration to her to try more challenges (and she has done some unusual things in her time).

As for the other posters, I feel sympathy for his family. He was a great showman, naturalist and teacher about our wildlife.

Believe me, Irwin was popular everywhere ... even here in India, his show is on all the time. Kiids have to learn English in the better schools, and parents know that English opens up doors for their chiildren later in life, so quality programming in English for kiids is really popular. Things like the Discovery Kiids channel, and of course ... the Croc Hunter on Animal Planet. The show that taught America how to say "Crikey", which was almost as bad as listening to my fellow countrymen trying to imitate Crocodile Dundee ("that's a knife", G'day mate, etc) 20 years ago.

He did a lot for animal protection and ****s, both in Australia and elsewhere. I've talked to Aussies who had their problems with him, but no one's perfect and I always thought he was genuine, damn entertaining, and a decent guy. And he obviously loved what he did for a living, which is admirable and all-too-rare.

Of course I grieve for his family, but at the same time I'm glad he died doing something he loved. Definitely not the kind of guy to lie around expiring with tubes coming out of every orifice at the age of 85. I always figured he'd get it via a snake-bite -- as careful as you are, it just takes one slip up, as evidenced by the death of Joe Slowinski 5 years ago -- and Irwin hadn't been bitten enough by any one species to build up immunities. Some Stingray barbs have poison too (just like half of the animals in and around Australia, ha ha), and what I read indicated that he actually died of cardiac arrest from the toxins in the barb, probably applied near or directly to his heart.

The animal was acting defensively, and if Irwin was around, he'd be the first one to say that the mistake was his own. That absolutely sucks that he lost his life over it. Since the camera was rolling at the time, what will be most sucky is that its only a matter of time before the actual footage turns up somewhere. Stolen home-made sex videos -- yes! Real-life footage of people being killed -- no no no no no.

No doubt he'll be turning over rocks and muckin' around in his khaki shirt and shorts in some other unknown place, so he'll be happy and excited. Good on ya, mate. We'll miss you though.

RM

(planning on shuffling off this mortal coil in a similar fashion, doing something I love ... if only Grace, Roxana, Nikola, and Sonya would give me the chance! )

I don't know if the footage will ever make it before the public eye, but he did say once that if he was going to die, he wanted it to be on camera. So while he probably didn't expect it to happen, he got the early, doing something he loved death he wanted.

I must admit that this is indeed very sad news. I allways thought that Steve was invinciable and find it sad and in some ways ironic that he is no longer with us. It only goes to prove that after all, we are all human. And as short as life is, he went out doing what he loves best... enjoying nature. Now if we all could do that there would be a lot more happy people in this world.

P1