Steve Irwin Dies
 

BRISBANE, Australia - Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44.

Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said Irwin was diving near Low Isles near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane



A helicopter carrying paramedics flew to the island, but he died from a stingray barb to the heart, ABC reported on its Web site.



This is something I really wasnt expecting , Really sad :(

Steve Irwin has died!!!
 

Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44.

Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred, Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said Irwin was diving near Low Isles near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane.

A helicopter carrying paramedics flew to the island, but he died from a stingray barb to the heart, ABC reported on its Web site.

Telephone calls to Australia Zoo, Irwin's zoo in southern Queensland, were not immediately answered.

Irwin is famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchcry "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter," which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

He rode his image into a feature film, and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

Irwin had received some negative publicity in recent years. In January 2004, he stunned onlookers at his Australia Zoo reptile park by carrying his 1-year-old son into a crocodile pen during a wildlife show. He tucked the infant under one arm while tossing the 13-foot reptile a piece of meat with the other.

Authorities declined to charge Irwin for violating safety regulations.

Later that year, he was accused of getting too close to penguins, a seal and humpback whales in Antarctica while making a documentary. Irwin denied any wrongdoing, and an Australian Environment Department investigation recommended no action be taken against him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/...v/obit_irwin_5

Raph's Girl note: A Stingray! Everybody thought it was the Crocs that would do it...but nope...a relative of a shark! :o You were well loved Steve...well loved...we'll miss ya for sure.

Well fu*k. My whole family loved Steve Irwin. I guess I was right. It was something he wasn't too experienced with that got him. He knew the crocs too well. This is a sad day. :(

*edit* Threads merged. They both hit 3 minutes apart.

Poor Steve... Any word on where we can send letters of condolence?

Oh man...Terri doesn't even know either...she's somewhere in the Tasmanian Mountains and they're having a hard time trying to get in contact with her! :o

This has been a sad year for the zoo...first their oldest tortoise dies and now Steve! :(

:(

I loved that guy. I can't believe he's dead.

At least he died doing what he loved. RIP Steve.

This is sad, He was crazy, But very likable, He will surely be missed.

The Crocodile Hunter was nuts - I loved him!!! What other guy would get out of a moving vehicle just to run over to one of the world's most lethal snakes to pick it up; or put his head in a croc's mouth; or play with scorpions, giant cockroaches and other dangerous and creepy things.

He made it all look so easy and cool - but in the end maybe he thought it was just a little too easy. This was probably his preferred way to go - killed in action. RIP Steve!

I was shocked when I heard this on the radio after school today. Honestly, a world without Steve Irwin is hard to imagine, but it is happening. :( As much as I disliked his over-the-top act when preforming, he was conserving the Australian environment and helping preserve wildlife, and for that, I loved him. I was expecting this a few years down the track, but not right now. All the same, I hope his wife and kids will cope fine with this. I mean, Binda (the eldest child) loved her dad. I mean, he was the Croc Hunter! The thing that made Australia in the past decade.

Also, as a little note (since I'm living right near the heart of the action), they tried to revive him in hospital, but all of their attempts failed. Sting-ray stings can be as deadly as a venomous snake bite. One guy took 16 months just so then a wound could heal over. Rest In Peace, Steve. We will sorely miss you here :cry:

Here is the address for "Australia Zoo". I guess that's where you can send letters.

Glass House Mountains Tourist Drive
Beerwah
Queensland 4519
Australia

If you want to e-mail them, you can just send it to here - www.australiazoo.com.au

Not sure if that helps, but I hope that it benifits someone...

Rest in Peace man

http://www.cairnsnewspapers.com.au/e...loads/A304.JPG

I feel really bad for Bindi, l'il Bob and Teri...

This just depresses the hell out of me. :cry:

I don't want to sound like an insensitive prick, but in my opinion, he kinda asked for it. Annoying animals, mistreating the hell out of them. If you're gonna do reckless stuff like bug a baby crocodlie RIGHT IN FRONT of its mother, you can't expect them not to retalliate.

Those are EXACTLY my thoughts. Of course this is sad but I'm sure someone like Irwin was always prepared for death.

Still, it's kind of surreal, all the same. I mean, we all joked that it would probably happen...And now it has, and it's a very strange feeling.

Mistreating animals? The dude was probably the biggest animal lover on the planet. Saying it was bound to happen eventually is one thing, but to say he was 'asking for it' is just crap, and really, let's not get into that here.

It's still sad, though. I loved Steve. LOVED him. The world has lost someone bright and wonderful and... so passionate about animals and saving them. Too few people are like that.

Rest in peace, Steve-O. We'll all miss you.

My condolences to Teri and Bindi and Bob.

You do sound like an insensitive prick. He knows crocs, he was like one of them, he knew what and how they would react. What got him was a startled ray, I wouldnt doubt he was allergic to the venom in the sting and never knew it.
He didn't annoy animals and mistreat them. How can you say that when he would go to a war torn country and build a city's crocodile, who was living in filth, build him a brand new more suitable enclosure on his own money? Or build one of the best zoological gardens? I knew alot about reptiles before watching him, I know more because of his work. He's an animal lover's hero.
I hope he's up there were his mom, Suie and his tortoise Harriet who left this world earlier this year.

Steve Irwin had a great deal of respect and love for animals. Every bit of Croc Hunter profits went into conservation work. It's what he lived for, and it's what he died for. He might have been a modern gladiator-- facing death for our edification and entertainment-- but he knew what he was doing. And I say that both as an animal scientist and as an admirer of people who try to make a difference in the world, be that difference big or small. And Steve Irwin made no small difference.

ETA: From the people I've talked to who know a little about rays, this had to have been freak accident. This is only the third sting ray death in all of Australia's history, and many people go to Oz expressly to swim the reefs and similar marine ecotourism.

It's a shame he died, really. But I just don't find it all that surprising.

If every day I go out and slap a grizzly bear in the face, chances are he's eventually going to kill me.

Steve Irwin made a career out of doing crazy stunts with dangerous animals and eventually one killed him. It was inevitable. Sort've like a soldier. They go out and risk their lives for a living so it's not really surprising when they get killed. Sad? Absolutely. But it doesn't surprise the socks off me.

Still, I did enjoy his antics and I will miss him.

Did he jam his thumb up it's butthole? :P

*sighs*

So... the Croc Hunter finally became the prey. That really sucks.

I wonder just how many animals, reptiles and insects he 'hunted' during his adventures. Probably a Titanic-load, for sure.

It always happens when you LEAST expect it. Always. The fact that I stopped watching the show before he died proves my theory. Now, I feel like such an idiot.

I wonder how is this gonna affect Australia? I hope they learned a lot from him. I know I did.

See you in the afterlife, Steve.

CRIKEY!!!!8)

Well I'm sorry you feel that way about my remark, but suppose I was dancing like crazy on a VERY FRAGILE 2 by 4 above a volcano EVERY DAY. Eventually, I'd fall to my death. This is what happened to him. You probably thought I was happy that he died, but that ain't what I meant.

Damn you Troy Tempest.

I bet he wouldn't even have blamed the stingray that got him. Poor guy - he did dangerous things, yes, but he did most of it out of love for the animals. Most of these things he was rescuing, and you could tell he loved 'em all. He was filming a documentary this time, so it's highly likely his death exists on film somewhere. Hope they never air it, though... it would be so disturbing.

Rest in peace, mate...

Guys, CHILL!

We're getting up in arms over emotions about someone's opinion about the Croc Hunter!


TRUE, he was a crazy dude, but as some have mentioned here, he lived life to the FULLEST, never actually *HARMING* the animals that he wanted to show us, even though they were "just a little bit annoyed at me for pickin' them up!".

I always thought he was the most hillarious dude on the face of the earth, so now he's hunting crocs in heaven alongside his dog Sui!


And yes, I realize that I'm going to upset some people with that comment, but I just wanted to speak my mind...

...And FedEx must be wishing they never made this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Okp5FTKOB4

Well just think... he's gone beyond the Rainbow bridge and been reunited with his mom (whom he was EXTREMELY close to), his dogs (Bindi and Sue), Harriet the tortoise, and Lucy the Croc.

But he lives on in his kids, Bindi Sue (who was named after the dog Sue and the Croc Bindi...not the dog Bindi) and Bob, and in the species of snapping turtle he discovered, which was named after him, Irwin's Tortoise.

Steve had a major love of animals, particularly Crocs and Turtles. Sure he was always saying "Crocs rule!" But he also rather frequently exlaimed how much he loved turtles. So he was probably a TMNT fan (which would be really cool).

Steve wasn't careless...this was just a 1 and a million chance of this happening....he went in for a dive and was stung by a fish with no backbone (and I mean that litterally).

He was a great environmentalist. All he did for environmental protection will be remembered and honored. Yes he was a bit extentric in how he did it...but that's why people love him so much. He was excited about what he did.

By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and woman do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.

For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play,
Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.

No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness,
For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed,
Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.

They romp through the grass, without even a care,
Until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back,
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.

For just at that instant, their eyes have met;
Together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past,
The time of their parting is over at last.

The sadness they felt while they were apart,
Has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever,
And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.

Oh Im sure they will...just like they did with Grizzly Man.

Yes it's a great documentary about this man (and his GF) who lived on the side of danger with Grizzly Bears...documenting them rather closely.

But the guy and his GF were mauled to death....and they were filming at the time....Not much is shown but you can hear their screams.

This is shown on Discovery Channel and Animal Planet...so you just KNOW they'll show the documentary Steve was working on. :ohwell:

I wish people wouldn't act like he ever harmed the animals for the sake of doing crazy sh*t for attention. It was the complete opposite. He may have annoyed the living crap out of them, but in the end, it was for their own benifit. When you educate people about something potentially, they are less likely to fear it or have a desire to destory it. That's what he tried to prove by doing all that crazy-ass stuff on TV.

Hell, it looks like Crocs may posess the cure to Aids. You don't kill something because you fear it. For every animal we push to extinction, we're killing a small part of ourselves, and it you've got to annoy the piss out of an animal to make the point, then so be it. His stunts got our attention and made us listen to the point he was trying to make. As long as they're not being hurt, anything goes, and he never intentionally hurt an animal.

Watch this, guys.

oh....how profoundly sad :cry:

I remember the first time i watched his show..I thought, this guy's a nut...but he was very passionate about what he did. Steve's an icon. No one could ever replace him.

My late hubby and I used to talk about going to see Austrailia zoo. he wanted to meet Steve more than anything in the world. Him and Jeff Corwin. I shook hands with Jeff Corwin two weeks after Trent died...Trenty, shake hands with Steve for me when you meet him :cry: :cry:

RIP Crocodile Hunter

Wow....what a shame...

Love him or hate him, he brought interest and charisma to important environmental issues....very, very sad news...

Yea... the ep Mary (why do I keep on thinking it was Lucy? ) died was the SADDEST ep of Croc Hunter Diaries period.

Mary was one of the mates of Agro. Agro let Steve grieve for Mary and let him bury her. Croc's grieve too and the fact that neither Agro or the other crocs that lived in that pen didn't even go near the body or attack at the funeral was simply amazing.

So IMO Agro, Acco, Lucy, Sharon, Angel, Charlie, Connie and Nobbie are all grieving in their own right. Along with all the other animals.

Animals grieve...no matter the species. They always sense when their friends pass on.

The dude sure was crazy but was entertaining, he'll be missed.

Yeah, there were several times i thought..."that's a black mamba....put it down!' Never thought it's be the rather inacuous sting ray that killed him...although one news report I heard not to long ago, the reporter miss-read it and said it was a manatee...:P

Yea....them sea cows are dangerous mate...they're related to the elephant so they'll charge at ya with high speeds to get at the turtle grass. :roll:

i heard about it last night, he will be missed

:cry: It's sad to see this guy go. I'll never forget my early childhood days when I watched Croc Files mornings before school. That show'll be something for me to remember him by.

I miss Steve very much so. Something tells me he's in a better place now.

No kidding; "This was only the third known fatality in Australian history from a stingray attack, and the first since 1945. As of 1996, only seventeen worldwide fatalities had been recorded, and it is believed to be the only fatal attack ever captured on film." :cry:

I'v'e been pretty down all day, I feel like I've really lost a freind...but I never met him or anything. Through his shows, the Diaries and all that...I felt like I knew him, the family, everybody...we've seen his greatest joy when Bindi was born and the saddest moments like the death of that croc in the clip, I"m sure he was that way with Harriet...he really loved her...

They're talking about whether or not to air the footage of when he was killed. It's all up to Teri.

I'm fairly sure... for his memory, for him, she'll allow it.

I really have no interest in watching his death...