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Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, Killed by Stingray

Steve Irwin, the popular Australian film and television personality, environmentalist and animal rights advocate—known to millions of fans worldwide as The Crocodile Hunter—was killed Monday after being stung in the chest by a stingray. The incident occurred during a diving expedition while Irwin was filming an underwater documentary near the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44 years old.

Irwin collapsed at Batt Reef, Low Isle, near the resort town of Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia at approximately 11 a.m. local time, according to a statement issued by the Queensland Police Service. Crew members aboard Irwin’s boat, Croc One, called emergency services and performed CPR on Irwin as they rushed him by boat to the nearest town. An emergency helicopter was dispatched as soon as Irwin’s crew called for medical treatment, but Irwin was pronounced dead at the scene.

Irwin owned and operated the Australia Zoo in Queensland, which he expanded and renamed after taking over the business from his parents, naturalists Lyn and Bob Irwin. He was famous worldwide for his enthusiastic trademark cry of “Crikey!” and his passion for wildlife, which were showcased in feature films and a hit television series, The Crocodile Hunter, that aired internationally on the Discovery Channel.

Stingrays have wide flat bodies that look almost like wings as they swim gracefully through the water. They have spiny, serrated tails that contain venom and can inflict painful injuries, but stingrays are usually not aggressive and the wounds they inflict are rarely fatal to humans. It is believed that Irwin either suffered a form of cardiac arrest as a result of the puncture wound to his chest, or that the bayonet-like barb of the stingray actually pierced his heart. The exact details will not be known until an autopsy is performed.

Irwin is survived by his wife and co-star, Terri, an American from Eugene, Oregon, their daughter Bindi Sue, who is 8 years old, and their 2-year-old son Bob.

CAIRNS, Australia Sep 4, 2006 (AP)— Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was 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 bard on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said.

"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 at the time.

Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat 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 his catchword "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter." First broadcast in Australia in 1992, the program was picked up by the Discovery network, catapulting Irwin to international celebrity.

He rode his image into a feature film, 2002’s "The Crocodile Hunters: Collision Course" and developed the wildlife park that his parents opened, Australia Zoo, into a major tourist attraction.

"The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet," Stainton told reporters in Cairns. "He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, ‘Crocs Rule!’"

Prime Minister John Howard, who hand-picked Irwin to attend a gala barbecue to honor President Bush when he visited in 2003, said he was "shocked and distressed at Steve Irwin’s sudden, untimely and freakish death."

"It’s a huge loss to Australia," Howard told reporters. "He was a wonderful character. He was a passionate environmentalist. 

Source: steve_steady64

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Larry Slobodkin, eminent ecologist, founding chairman of the Stony Brook University Ecology and Evolution Department, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences passed away last Saturday.

Larry”s impact on the science of ecology is immeasurable, particularly with regards to linking population dynamics with ecosystem ecology. A concrete example of this is his famous HSS paper. With coauthors Nelson Hairston Sr. and Jerry Smith, Slobodkin use a simple observation (the world is green) to deduce that predators limit herbivore abundance, thus allow plants to flourish.

Beyond his scientific contributions, Slobodkin is reknown for creating the world”s first graduate program in ecology and evolutionary biology (at Stony Brook University). Many of the best and brightest in the field have either taught or schooled in this program.

Larry”s (academic) nephew, ecologist Mike Rosenzweig, wrote a great piece about him for Evolutionary Ecology Research. Larry contributed this autobiographical article. More articles in the EER special issue in his honor are available here.

NY Times Obituary

By:  Dennehy                        Source