Monday, September 04, 2006
“Crocodile Hunter†Steve Irwin killed by stingray off Great Barrier Reef
Australian naturalist Steve Irwin was famous for getting up close and personal with his deadly subjects. He leapt fearlessly on to the backs of man-eating crocodiles, wrestled Komodo Dragons and deftly juggled snakes as they sought to plunge their venomous fangs into his arm or face, all the while keeping up a lively commentary for the cameras of his multimillion-dollar documentary operation. Scratched, bitten and bruised, he would display his wounds like trophies, casually using gaffer tape to bind up a severe bite from a large saltwater crocodile that he had been wrestling in a mangrove swamp. And the Crocodile Hunter understood how his risk-taking made him a cult hero to millions in the 130 countries where his films aired: his fans aped his trademark cry of "Crikey, he nearly got me!" and flocked to his Australia Zoo in Queensland on Australia's east coast."Steve Irwin's all pretty interesting on the telly or in the movie and that, but by crikey, it's great when he gets bitten," he once told Australia's ABC television. "Now and again I do get bitten. But I haven't been killed. And it's that, you know, that sense of morbidity that people do have. There's no use sticking your head in the sand and going, 'Oh, no, they're only here because, you know, I talk well.' Nah, man, they wanna see me come unglued."
They call Australia Zoo the house that Steve Irwin built. On Monday, it lost its star attraction.
Hundreds of employees, many wiping tears from their eyes as they drove past the zoo exit on their way home from work, were saddened by the news that their employer, 44-year-old Irwin, died after being stung by a stingray barb in a diving accident about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) north off Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef.
"We're all pretty shocked by this mate, just bear with us," a security guard who did not want to be named said as he attempted to separate zoo-goers from dozens of media that descended on the site about 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of the state capital Brisbane.
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 bard 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.
from GooglesNews>World
man... my fav guy on documentary TV... haixx... Godbless him
6:52 AM
