'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin Dies at 44

[GLF]

BRISBANE, Australia -- Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said.

"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time.

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=232667&GT1=7703

[Dv8oR]

Here's another from a short ago.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060905/ap_on_en_tv/obit_irwin

"Experts have said the stingray may have felt trapped between the cameraman and the TV star."

My question!

Why is a crocodile hunter playing with stingrays?

[Ginwithtonic]

Supposedly, they were doing a documentary.

[GLF]

My condolences go out to his family.

[Reel Turner]

You play with the bull, you're going to get the horns. Too bad for his wife and kids.

[Ginwithtonic]

It is terrible and sad. He was a great spokesperson for the preservation of natural habitat.

[SkeinMachine]

At least he went doing what he loved.......

Sad loss(always watched the show).

R.I.P. mate!!

[Dv8oR]

You play with the bull, you're going to get the horns. Too bad for his wife and kids.

My point is though, he wasn't playing with the bulls he knows and loves....

I mean I'm sure they researched Stingrays before they went out and played with them, but obviously no one knew about the pressures a Stingray must feel when you swim over them with a cameraman pressuring from another angle.......

I've been in cars all my life, I'm not going to start building jet planes tomorrow.........

Ya know what I mean?????

T

[GLF]

Nature is unpredictable. It was just a matter of time before something got him.

[Mike]

You would have figured that a croc or snake bite would get him, but a stingray is a surprise. Apperantly he is only the 3rd person in the world to have died from a stingray.

[Heavy Action]

Just wasn't his day!!!