http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/australia.irwin/index.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20349891-601,00.html

 

I thought this was a joke at first (and so did my Wife). I always liked him, and his show (I know my kids did too). Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Very sad news.

 

one would hardly imagine that it would be a stingray that killed him, considering the many other more notorious lethal animals and reptiles he played around with......... still sad news even if he did push the limits of safety......... i've been doing some google searches on this type of attack
http://www.nswseakayaker.asn.au/mag/47/stingrays.html

read this http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20350278-1702,00.html

 

Wow, this is actually made me really sad.

 

I was pretty sad about this too. And I'm almost never upset about celebrity deaths. But I've never seen somebody with such contagious enthusiasm for the outdoors as this guy. Some people disliked him because his showmanship was a little over the top, but without that edge he never would have been able to generate so much publicity for conservation. He was a treasure.

 

Crazy, I was in Tonga scuba diving a few weeks ago and we came upon a pile of giant stingrays mating, there were five or six of them about 4 feet across and 5 feet long, I guess I didn't realize quite how dangerous they are! I feel bad for his family, and young kids.

 

Sad story, feel bad for his wife and children. But in a way it's how you would expect him to go and maybe how he'd want to go, doing what he loved to do. My wife had some dealings with him through her job and did actually meet him. She felt that he was a good, down to earth kind of guy.
Sorry to see him go. We'll miss his enthusiasm for all things wild.

 

It's a shame; I always enjoyed his show. It doesn't surprise me that he went this way though, he took alot of foolish risks at times.

Kind of like when he held his infant son up in front of a large crocodile. He easily could have tripped or slipped and dropped his son into the crocs reach. As the old saying goes: "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots; but there are no old, bold pilots"

As for wanting to die that way, I doubt it. I'm sure deep down he would have rather died peacefully at an old age surrounded by loving grandchildren!

 

That guy did wonders for popularizing wildlife and its conservation. He made the big leagues with Jaques Cousteau and Jane Goodall. What a crappy way to go though. Reminds me of when Dick Root from UW was killed by the croc in Africa earlier this year. Two wildlife-encounter tragedies.

When my time comes I'd like the big brainstem stroke or the massive arrhythmia, middle of the night, no messing around, no slow decline.

 

Really sad!! He was quite a character and his shows were fun to watch. Of all things to do him in, a sting ray. That guy use to blow me away the way he would handle everything from the worlds most venomous snakes to spiders and look at the camera with big ass grin on his face. He will truley be missed. My heart goes out to his wife and two young children.

 

Very sad for his family but the guy was really asking for it. If you pick at and tease wild animals long enough, one is bound to make you pay for it. I've found it hard to convince my students that some of the things these guys do is just wrong. They see him and guys like Jeff Corwin grab every thing that moves and they think it's cool. They don't understand that a lot of these things are staged. I spent 15 years with USFW before going into teaching and I've seen the lengths that so called wildlife photographers and documentary makers will go to get the shot. Remember Marty Stouffer's Wild America? PBS put an end to that and he paid huge fines because of the damage he did to "get the shot". Things like baiting Grizzlies into the same spot to get video of the fight, bulldoze roads through protected land to get to Elk habitat, and turn tame deer lose into Cougar habitat to film the chase and kill. How many of you know that many of the snakes they catch are blasted with CO2 to make them sluggish before they grab them. Then little Johnny sees the Rattlesnake or Copperhead, remembers the Croc Hunter, tries to catch it and ends up in the hospital. Sure he brought a lot of awareness to environmental issues and he had a great love for nature but he teased and harassed a lot of animals to do it. If you remember, Marlin Perkins (“I’ll stay in the blind while Jim wrestles the Bengal Tiger”) and Jacques Cousteu did most of their work with wildlife agencies doing legitimate research. Most of the guys you see today are doing it for the entertainment value. Again a very sad thing and I’m sorry for his family but he knew the risk and it finally caught up with him.
On a lighter note, and also sad, school starts tomorrow so my fly fishing on weekdays, when most of you are working, is over until June. I can hear the tears hitting your keyboards

 

Natural selection.
cds

 

On a lighter note, and also sad, school starts tomorrow

Yes, that's also sad, very sad.

 

the guy was really asking for it. If you pick at and tease wild animals long enough, one is bound to make you pay for it. I've found it hard to convince my students that some of the things these guys do is just wrong. They see him and guys like Jeff Corwin grab every thing that moves and they think it's cool. They don't understand that a lot of these things are staged...Then little Johnny sees the Rattlesnake or Copperhead, remembers the Croc Hunter, tries to catch it and ends up in the hospital.

Isn't fly fishing, at its very core, picking up and teasing wild animals?

Guys like Irwin show possibilities to lots of kids who may never have even thought about wildlife. The guy was pretty much textbook ADHD, his hyperfocused skill was pursuit and capture of wild-animals. I like watching excellence, and when it came to doing what he was good at, the guy had it in spades. He said what he thought and most of it was about crocs and snakes, how cool is that? There's something about excellence that is infectious, he was top of his field, I respect that. I grew up in Australia and I learned more about the fauna and flora watching Irwin than I did reading books or trying to catch snakes.

At the very least, I sort of know how to wrestle a croc- you need duct tape, some rope, torches, a tinny with a 15hp outboard, a long pole, a pair of blunnies, and three big fellas named either Davo, Johnno, Wayne or Kevin.

I have taken some of this into account when dealing with methheads.

 

Natural selection.
cds

Technically Charlie Darwin really wouldn't call it natural selection since he already successfully reproduced, twice.