Crocodile Hunter Killed by....Stingray

Leave it to the worlds' most audacious animal handler to be killed by one of the world's least dangerous animals while filming an underwater documentary. Steve Irwin, best known as for his hit series Crocodile Hunter, died yesterday after a stingray placed a poisoned barb close too his heart. For the most part the worst a stingray can do is leave a painful dart in someone's foot that can be painful, but not life threatening.

But if you have ever seen Irwin's show "Crocodile Hunter" then you would know that he gets pretty close to the animals he is filming and probably was in the middle of picking up the creature and asking it to smile for the camera. In that position the tail of the ray would have been next to his heart. It's sad because he was one of Austrailia's leading environmentalists. At the same time, I don't think anyone is surprised that a man who happily takes his one-month-old infant within a few feet of a twelve foot crocodile eventually got killed by a wild animal.

In the next few months get ready for a Warren Herzog documentary where he watches footage from the fatal attack and decides that it would be too painful for us viewers to see.

[link]