Re: ot: steve irwin dies

Tom Wolper wrote:
johnny bobby bee wrote:
Mary Ballard wrote:
croc hunter steve irwin died when a stingray barb went into his chest
- sounds like a horrible death - not surprised
really - the riskks he took - kinda like the grizzly man guy.

I was thinking the same thing, originally. But i don't think Irwin was
quite as careless as Timothy Treadwell. That Treadwell dude was insanely
kooky. Then again ... so was that nutty croc hunter.


From the AP story:

Wild animal expert Jack Hanna, who frequently appears on TV with his subjects,
offered praise for Irwin.

"Steve was one of these guys, we thought of him as invincible," Hanna, director
emeritus of the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and Aquarium, told ABC's "Good Morning
America" Monday.

"The guy was incredible. His knowledge was incredible," Hanna said. "Some people
that are doing this stuff are actors and that type of thing, but Steve was truly
a zoologist, so to speak, a person who knew what he was doing. Yes, he did
things a lot of people wouldn't do. I think he knew what he was doing."

An observation evidently not borne out by his death. I'm sorry he was
killed, and I feel for his wife and child, but if he were more
knowledgable of the stingray's behavior, he would have never come as
close to it as he did.

But that was his calling card: "Mr. Irwin was known for getting
melodramatically near claws and jaws of land and sea creatures. This
was the allure of his television franchise, mostly seen by American
audiences on the Animal Planet cable channel during the past decade."
(W Post)

All for the tv.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090400414.html?nav=hcmodule

Stingray Deaths Like Irwin Are Very Rare

By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Monday, September 4, 2006; 2:02 PM


-- Stingrays are strange-looking but normally shy creatures whose
defenses include poisonous, serrated barbs in their tails.

At least 35 species of stingrays swim in the tropical waters of
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where television personality Steve
Irwin died Monday when he was stabbed in the heart by a ray's barb.

Experts called it a freak occurrence.

They said the triangular-shaped rays are usually unobtrusive, gliding
through the water, rummaging on the sea bottom for food or burrowing
into the sand. But when stepped on or otherwise frightened, they deploy
spines up to 10 inches long with breadknife-like serrations as a
defense mechanism.

"If it's spooked by someone stepping on it or swimming too closely over
it, frightening it, the tail raises involuntarily," said Victoria
Brims, a marine life expert at OceanWorld, an aquarium in Sydney,
Australia.

The spines emit toxins that can kill many small creatures and that
cause excruciating pain in humans. Few people die from the poison, but
the spines can badly tear flesh and the wounds are prone to infections,
including tetanus.

Simon Pierce of Queensland University's School of Biological Sciences
said there were no accurate records of stingray deaths, but estimated
there had been about 30 worldwide in recent years.

Witnesses said Irwin was struck directly in the heart.

"It was extraordinarily bad luck," said Shaun Collin, a University of
Queensland marine neuroscientist. "It's not easy to get spined by a
stingray, and to be killed by one is very rare."

.

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