Steve Irwin killed by stingray

After risking life and limb for years, the Crocodile Hunter finally came a bit too close to one of his animal subjects. According to the report, he was swimming off of the coast of Australia, filming a documentary, when a stingray stuck its barbed tail into his heart.

I can't say that I am suprised that he was killed by one of the animals that he was filming. He tended to get a little too close in my opinion, and it seemed like he regularly "intimidated" them so that his viewers could see their natural defense behavior. Over the last few years, I was wondering when his seeming carelessness would catch up with him. It's like the Siegfried and Roy story all over again.

What's really strange is that they say that stingrays rarely ever attack people, and when they do its because they feel threatened. In fact, they said that the last time that somebody died from a stingray attack in Australia was in 1945. I wonder what Mr. Irwin did to provoke the attack - maybe the video will be released someday and we can all learn one last valuable lesson from him - what NOT to do when swimming with stingrays.

I'll admit that even though I thought he acted like an overdramatic goofball most of the time, I enjoyed some of his shows.