Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, dead at 44

Crikey!

The Earth, and it's fauna, lost a friend today, September 4, 2006, Australian time when Steve Irwin, the Australian conservationist, known internationally as "The Crocodile Hunter", was killed while doing what he loved best, filiming his beloved animals.

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Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin has been killed by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef during the filming of a new TV series. The stingray's barb pierced the 44-year-old's chest, causing a heart seizure.

Wildlife warrior Steve Irwin was a daredevil who loved flirting with danger around deadly animals. But after years of close shaves it was a normally harmless stingray which finally claimed his life on Monday, plunging a barb into the Crocodile Hunter's chest as he snorkelled in shallow water on the Great Barrier Reef.

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The 44-year-old TV personality may have died instantly when struck by the stingray while filming a sequence for his eight-year-old daughter Bindi's new TV series, friends believe.

full story and pictures Ninemsn

STINGRAY

Members of the Dasyatidae family of cartilaginous fish, with about 70 species worldwide

Mostly found in tropical seas, but exist in freshwater too

Feed primarily on molluscs and crustaceans on sea floor

Swim with flying motion using large pectoral wings

Usually docile, not known to attack aggressively

Equipped with venom-coated razor-sharp barbed or serrated tail, up to 20cm long

Stingray photo and information BBC NEWS