The Crocodile Hunter is gone

[unixronin]

As many other people have observed, Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, has died by the freak chance of taking a stingray barb directly to the heart.  Irwin's is only the fourth fatality on record in Australia froma stingray barb (there have been 17 worldwide); all four Australian deaths occurred when the barb pierced a swimmer's heart.  The previous three occurred in 1945, 1969, and 1990.

But you know what?  I can't help thinking, Steve wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  He died as he lived, up to the eyeballs in the Nature he loved.  No lingering sickness or long slow slide into dementia for Steve; just "Crikey!" and out go the lights.

David Morgan-Mar, of Irregular Webcomic fame, has a tribute strip up.

Here's another perspective, by the way, from semi-legendary African crocodile hunter Khalid Hassen.  Coming from a professional hunter who has cleared more than 17,000 crocodiles from Malawian waterways, where they frequently attack peasants, I cannot think of higher tribute.

Comments

skål

[koyote.livejournal.com]

may he drink mead with the gods.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

how the heck do ya get barbed in the heart?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Get too close above the stingray. They strike upward with their tails somewhat like a scorpion. The barb can be up to ten inches long on a large ray, and has a venom gland at the base, but the venom basically wasn't a factor in this case.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

true, i've see the barb on a large manta ray. it tore the crap out of my landing net!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Huh. I didn't think manta rays had a barb.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i may be wrong about what we caught, but this one did!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Are you sure it was a manta ray, not a stingray, then? Mantas are BIG, and don't to my knowledge have a barb.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i'm more of a fresh water person. this ray had a body that was about 2 feet long, a atail about another two feet and a wing span about three feet and a huge, landing net shredding barb

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Almost certainly a sting ray, I'd assume. Mantas have a wingspan up to thirty feet, but have only a short tail.

Manta ray (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/MantaRay/MantaRay.html) (two separate links)
Southern Sting Ray (http://www.rodnreel.com/gulffish/gulffish.asp?cmd=view&FishID=72)
Atlantic Sting Ray (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/AtlanticStingray/AtlanticStingray.html) (http://www.hamerhawaii.com/Manta%20Rays.htm) ()

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

i bow to your superior wisdom!

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

Crikey!

That was a sting ray, all right.

Mantas just take you and your net on a ride to the other hemisphere.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

hey, that sounds fun!