Steve Irwin stingray

Steve Irwin stingray video - Extreme

The Crocodile Hunter
Steve Irwin
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As all of you know by now, Steve Irwin has died of a stingray piercing through his heart. Amazingly, this was all caught on video. Not for the faint of heart. More videos below

LATEST NEWS: The footage of late Australian naturalist STEVE IRWIN being killed by a stingray could be shown on TV.

Charismatic Irwin, dubbed the Crocodile Hunter after his internationally acclaimed TV show, died yesterday (04SEP06) while diving on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Irwin was filming for a new documentary when he lost his life, and his cameraman shot the moment when the stingray’s barbed tail stabbed the legendary conservationist through the heart.

The tapes are currently being held by Queensland police - but Irwin’s family are determined to respect his last wishes and allow the harrowing footage to be broadcast.

Irwin once insisted, “My number one rule is to keep that camera rolling. Even if it’s shaky or slightly out of focus, I don’t give a rip. “Even if a big old alligator is chewing me up I want to go down and go, ‘Crikey!’ just before I die. That would be the ultimate for me.”

An insider tells British newspaper the Daily Star, “This is exactly what Steve would have wanted. He knew the dangers and was totally up for the cameras to get everything.

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Steve Irwin CNN death

4 min 26 sec - Sep 6, 2006

How a Passive Stingray Can Become Steve Irwin Deadly

By Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 04 September 2006 at livescience.com12:16 pm ET

Stingrays like the one that killed "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin are cousins of sharks. But unlike some sharks, which are fearsome predators with powerful jaws, the stingray is rarely a threat to humans and its small mouth is no threat at all.

The tail of the stingray that killed Irwin is capped with a roughly 8-inch spear made of the same stuff that makes up shark scales, known as dermal denticles. The spear, which stiffens when the stingray feels threatened, is serrated like a steak knife and packs a venom that can be deadly to predators.

The tip of a stingray's tail is serrated like a steak knife.

"The venom itself is a largely protein-based toxin that causes great pain in mammals and may also alter heart rate and respiration," according to the Mote Marine Laboratory.

"Stingrays do not attack people, however if it is stepped on, the stingray will utilize its spine as a form of defense," according to Nancy Passarelli and Andrew Piercy of Florida Museum of Natural History. "Although being pierced by the stingray’s spine is painful, it is rarely life threatening to humans."

There are about 200 species of stingrays. They live in both freshwater and in the oceans. Many do not have the ability to sting.

A stingray's mouth is on the underside of its flat body, so that it can feed on worms, crustaceans and other creatures on the seafloor. Its teeth are used to crack shells of prey.

Stingray spines have been used by coastal tribes to create spears and arrowheads, according to the Miami Museum of Science.

Irwin was likely killed not by the sting so much as the fact that the stingray's spear pierced his heart and caused him to bleed to death, according to news reports.

Stingray mutilations prompt Irwin vengeance fears

Bonnie Malkin and agencies
Tuesday September 12, 2006
Guardian Unlikmited

Safe, but for how long? A stingray swims in its enclosure at the Sydney aquarium. Photo: Mark Baker/AP

When a stingray killed the flamboyant naturalist Steve Irwin last week, his fellow Australian Germaine Greer outraged many by writing: "The animal world has finally taken its revenge." Now, it seems, the human world is hitting back.

Up to 11 stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia's eastern coast since the Crocodile Hunter's death, prompting fears that Irwin's fans are exacting their revenge on the normally docile fish.

Officials from the department of primary industries and fisheries say two of the dead stingrays were not the victims of revenge attacks, but they have been unable to determine the cause of death of at least another nine.

The fact that the tails and barbs of several of the animals were lopped off has environmentalists worried.

Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's conservation group, Wildlife Warriors, said he feared the rays were being hunted and killed in retaliation for the TV star's death.

"We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who has taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want," he said.

"I hope everyone understands we have to protect wildlife now more than ever. This is what Steve was all about."

Steve Irwin died when a stingray barb pierced his chest while he was swimming with the creatures on the Great Barrier Reef last week.

His death has prompted outpourings of grief in Australia and across the world, and some believe it may have triggered a demand for stingray souvenirs.

Mal Gulbrandson, 59, from Queensland, told the Sydney Morning Herald he had seen nine stingrays lying on Dundowran beach last Friday with their tails cut off.

Mr Gulbrandson said he believed someone had removed the tails and barbs from the fish to sell as mementos after Irwin's death. "They are taking advantage of Steve and using the spurs as jewellery," he said. "Steve, as we all know, was all for preserving the future."

A Queensland government spokesman said the mutilations would be investigated as possible cases of animal cruelty, but they were not initially thought to be related to Mr Irwin's death.

A memorial service for Steve Irwin is expected to be held next Wednesday in Brisbane's Suncorp stadium. Irwin's friend and business manager, John Stainton, said "quite a few people" from the entertainment industy had volunteered to perform at the event.

A private service was held for Irwin on Saturday at his family's zoo. At the ceremony, his closest friends and family sat around a campfire recounting their favourite stories of the passionate conservationist.

steve irwin death video

Steve Irwin stingray video - Extreme

Tribute to Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin CNN death

How a Passive Stingray Can Become Steve Irwin Deadly

The tip of a stingray's tail is serrated like a steak knife.