AhYap’s Blog

There are always rumours that said crocodile hunter dies because he is eaten by a crocodile. But today he really died. He is not eaten by a crocodile but sting by a sting-ray in the heart.

Steve Irwin was in the water at Batt Reef shooting a segment for a series called “Ocean’s Deadliest” when he swam too close to one of the animals.

Steve Irwin, the ebullient Australian whose catch cry of “Crikey!” helped him rise to global fame as television’s the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was in the water 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, said John Stainton, a friend and colleague.

“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, Croc One, at the time.

Crew members called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter.

Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and for regularly getting up close and personal with dangerous animals in his television program “Crocodile Hunter,” which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 before it was picked up by the Discovery network, catapulting him to international celebrity.

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