RIP Steve Irwin

Colourful Australian naturalist Steve Irwin died yesterday, killed by a stingray barb to the heart. If you've never seen him at his zoo or on TV, he used to leap around, dressed in a khaki shirt and matching shorts, fighting crocodiles and shouting 'crikey!' at regular intervals. His enthusiasm was infectious, and he was extremely popular. So much so that the news of his death has so far generated 2578 and counting news stories about him since yesterday. Australia seems to be planning a state funeral, and the zoo near Brisbane has been besieged with mourning fans.

The self-styled Crocodile Hunter was a true ambassador of natural history. Operating at the other end of the scale to David Attenborough's hushed and respectful delivery, yet appealing to an equally wide audience, it seems. He'd done endless live shows for his zoo visitors, and TV broadcasts for his millions of fans, and he was filming a new series when the accident happened. The actual incident seems to have been caught on film, but the people he was filming with didn't even see it happen, it was that sudden.

A small dark corner of my soul feels that the stingray wouldn't have stung him unless it felt threatened, and judging by Steve's normal style of wrestling with crocs and snakes this isn't impossible. His justification for waving his baby at a crocodile was that he had the creature under control, and knew its every move. Clearly he didn't know quite so much about the open seas and stingrays. In a case of dreadful irony, the series he was filming for was called Ocean's Deadliest. One thing's for sure though, if he had threatened the stingray, you can bet he didn't mean to. It's apparent from virtually all the personal testimonies about him that he truly loved animals and wanted everyone else to love them too. Maybe he overestimated how much they were capable of loving him back. RIP Steve.

Here's an obituary from BBC News.

Comments

[olivier blanchard]

My kids are going to be devastated. It's a sad day indeed.

[Carl]

I was a fan of The Crocodile Hunter and was shocked and saddened to hear of his death on the news yesterday. I went ahead and put a memorial entry about him on my blog as well. Apparently there are a lot of fans in the blogosphere judging by all the entries about him that I've read today.

[Katie]

A lot of fans everywhere I think....

[MT]

This accident looks like just the kind we might have expected, in that the ray seems to have acted "uncharacteristically." Get in the face of enough individuals and eventually you'll meet one that responds uncharacteristically. I wonder if Irwin over-relied on generalizations to feel confident in handling so many animals. Or did he not consult enough ray experts? Or do ray experts over-rely on generalizations, because they haven't done experiments on a large number of rays of any given species? Anyway, he had a long and successful run in what always looked like a very risky lifestyle. Maybe in effect this death is the best lesson he could have given to children and everybody else at this point in his career.

[Katie]

Sadly the whole appeal of the way he did what he did was him putting himself in the reach of incredibly dangerous animals. When it was at the zoo it was one thing, like a man putting his head in the mouth of his pet tame lion. But in the wild all bets are off. Even if one in a million rays feel the need to actually make use of the big sting that nature gave them, the point is not to be near that ray when it goes sting-crazy. Wild animals are just that. Wild. And unpredictable.

[Mel]

My impression from the stories that I've read is that the stingray was probably feeling crowded by having that many people in the water, and it's more likely that the camerapeople stirred it up. Stingrays, even when threatened, usually sting when stepped on--they don't swim by and stab things.

I am sad about the whole thing.

[David james]

The untimely passing of Steve Irwin is a great tragedy. This has effected my family more than I could have imagined; he has been a great influence on myself and my two boys. The world will never be the same. In the past, I have dealt with this type of emotional pain through music. Being a song writer and composer, I have written musical compositions and songs to honour friends, family, and fallen heroes to ease the pain and commemorate the contributions they've made in life. Steve falls under the obvious catagory of "HERO." Please accept and share with the world this musical tribute in honour of the great "CROCODILE HUNTER" Steve Irwin.. WE LOVE YOU STEVE!!!!

Sincerely:
David James

P.S. - You can visit me at: www.davidjamesmusic.net
and download the musical tribute "THE MIGHTY STEVE"

[mas]

steve was a fucker!!!!!!!!

[kylie]

how could you say something like that?

[Katie]

Well said, Kylie.