Television personality and environmentalist Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to his heart during a diving expedition. The 44-year-old Irwin was stung near the resort town of Port Douglas, more than 1,200 miles north of Brisbane, where he'd been filming an underwater sequence for a series on the Great Barrier Reef.

A rescue helicopter rushed to the scene when members of Irwin's crew raised the alarm but it was too late to save his life.

Irwin's American-born wife, Terri, was in Tasmania with their two children when police say she was notified of his death. The Irwins have a daughter who is eight and a son who will turn three in December.

Friend and producer John Stainton said, “The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet.'' His statement goes on to say that Irwin “left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind.''

Stingray deaths said to be rare

Marine experts in Australia say it's not easy to be injured by a stingray and very few people are killed by them.

Neuroscientist Shaun Collin at the University of Queensland said Irwin probably died because the barb pierced under his ribcage and directly into his heart.

Stingrays have a serrated, toxin-loaded barb, or spine, on the top of their tail. The barb can be up to ten inches long and it flexes if a ray is frightened.

Collin said stings usually occur to people when they step on or swim too close to a ray and can be excruciatingly painful but are rarely fatal.

Zoo staffers in shock

Hundreds of employees at Irwin's Australia Zoo wiped away tears as they drove out of the animal park on Monday.

One volunteer worker said, “I don't know what the zoo will do without him.''

Small satellite transmission centers are up near the highway that runs in front of the zoo as TV networks broadcast news from the site. Dozens of cars and trucks honked their horns in tribute as they drove down the highway.

Bouquets of flowers have piled up. One card reads “Steve, from all God's creatures thank you. Rest in peace.''

Tributes pouring in

The playful, energetic, animal wrangler had become a national icon.

Prime Minister John Howard said he's distressed by Irwin's “sudden, untimely and freakish'' death. He says Irwin was “a passionate environmentalist'' who brought “joy and entertainment and excitement to millions of people.'' He said Australia has lost a wonderful and colorful son.

Irwin had been honored by Australia's tourism industry for many projects associated with it, including a week-long trade promotion in California last winter called “G'Day LA 2006.''

His zoo won a national export award. Among the tribute mementos piling up there is a card from children with X's and O's and the simple words, “We will miss you.''

One British naturalist said he cried when he heard of Irwin's death. David Bellamy said TV's “Crocodile Hunter'' was unlike anyone else, in that he mixed good science with show business.

But another conservationist whose shows include one called “Extreme Survival'' said TV's demands for sensationalism may have encouraged Irwin to take too many chances. Ray Mears says audiences should be warned “it isn't all about hugging animals and going 'ahh.'''

A Norwegian marine biologist said Irwin's death from a too-close encounter with a stingray and its barb is “very sad'' but “not surprising.'' He said Irwin often “went further than was sensible.''

But others say Irwin's charm educated countless young people about conservation. And British zoologist Mark O'Shea said his death will leave “an immense hole.''

CAIRNS, Australia (Sept. 5) -- Steve Irwin pulled a poisonous stingray barb from his chest in his dying moments, his longtime manager said Tuesday, after watching videotape of the attack that killed the popular "Crocodile Hunter."
Irwin's body was returned home to Beerwah, a hamlet in southeastern Queensland on the fringe of the Outback where he lived with his wife and two young children. Irwin turned a modest reptile park opened by his parents into Australia Zoo, a wildlife reserve that has become an international tourist attraction.

Hundreds placed bouquets and handwritten notes at an ad hoc shrine to the popular 44-year-old naturalist outside the park, and other tributes flowed in from Canberra to Hollywood.

The dramatic details of Irwin's death Monday as he was shooting a program on the Great Barrier Reef were disclosed by John Stainton, his manager and close friend. He said he had viewed the videotape showing the TV star pulling the poisonous stingray barb from his chest.

"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out, and the next minute he's gone," Stainton told reporters in Cairns, the nearest city to tiny Batt Reef off Australia's far northeast coast where the accident happened.

Stainton said the video was "shocking."

"It's a very hard thing to watch, because you are actually witnessing somebody die, and it's terrible," he said.


Tributes to Irwin

YouTube.com
YouTube is flooded with do-it-yourself tributes to the 'Crocodile Hunter.'

'I Will Remember You'
'Crocodile Rock'
Hip-Hop Tribute (Explicit Lyrics) The tape was not released to the public. Queensland state police took possession of a copy for a coroner's investigation.

Stainton estimated Irwin's distance from the stingray when the attack happened at about three feet.

State police Superintendent Michael Keating said Irwin was "interacting" with the stingray when it flicked its tail and speared his chest with the bone-hard serrated spine it bore - the normally placid animal's main defense mechanism.

"There is no evidence Mr. Irwin was threatening or intimidating the stingray," Keating said, addressing speculation that a man who became famous by leaping on crocodiles and snatching up snakes must have been too close for the animal's comfort.

Irwin's boundless energy and daredevil antics around deadly beasts made him a household name as the Discovery Channel's "The Crocodile Hunter," with a reported audience of more than 200 million.

Australia's leaders interrupted Parliament's normal business to eulogize Irwin.

"He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Prime Minister John Howard said.
His opposition counterpart, Kim Beazley, said: "He was not only a great Aussie bloke, he was determined to instill his passion for the environment and its inhabitants in everybody he met."

Friend and Oscar-winner Russell Crowe said from New York: "He was and remains the ultimate wildlife warrior."

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying Irwin was an unofficial Australian ambassador to the United States.

"With his humor and irrepressible sense of adventure, he represented those things our citizens find most appealing about Australia and its wonderful way of life," it said.

Hundreds of people journeyed Tuesday to Australia Zoo to remember Irwin.

Tia Koivisto drove her daughter Ella, 3, for more than an hour from the Queensland capital of Brisbane to lay a floral tribute.

"I was quite moved by what happened, I felt I had to come up and pay my respects," Koivisto said.

People thronged around the entrance of the park, near a billboard featuring Irwin holding a crocodile in his arms and his catch phrase, "Crikey!"

It reopened the day after Irwin's death following a staff meeting to discuss its future.

"We're all devastated," said Gail Gipp, the park's hospital wildlife manager. "It is very surreal at the moment. We're determined to carry on what he would have wanted."

There was no condolence book, but mourners lined up to sign messages onto khaki work shirts - another Irwin trademark - that were draped outside the gate. Someone placed flowers in the mouth of a wooden crocodile nearby.

"Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster left at the gate. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another.

"I thought you were immortal. How I wish that was true," said a third.

Zoo spokesman Peter Lang said Irwin's wife, Terri, of Eugene, Ore., daughter Bindi, 8, and son Bob, 2, arrived Monday night from the island state of Tasmania, where they had been vacationing when Irwin was killed.

The family hasn't spoken about Irwin's death or announced funeral plans, although Queensland Premier Peter Beattie offered a state funeral.

"We'll never replace Steve," said Michael Hornby, head of the Wildlife Warriors, one of the Irwin family's conservation charities. "He was part of the family, like he came out of the television set and into your living room. That's why there's been such an outpouring of emotion here and around the world. Everybody thought they knew him."