‘Hunter’ removed ray’s barb
BEERWAH, Australia – 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.
Terri Irwin, in her first public comment since her husband’s death, thanked the staff of his zoo in a brief message late Tuesday, said spokesman Michael Hornby.
“She was very choked up; it was a very frail comment,” Hornby said today. “But she wanted to say to the staff how grateful she was for their support and how much it meant to her.” Details weren’t made public.
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 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 said 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.
The tape was not released to the public. Queensland state police took possession of a copy for a coroner’s investigation.
Stainton said the tape should be destroyed when the coroner is finished.
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.
Irwin’s boundless energy and daredevil antics around deadly animals made him a household name as the Discovery Channel’s “The Crocodile Hunter,” with a reported audience of more than 200 million.
Meanwhile, Animal Planet said it had given no thought to taking “The Crocodile Hunter” off the air, said Maureen Smith, the network’s executive vice president and general manager.
“Steve’s whole mission in life was to educate and inspire the public to take care of animals in the world that we share,” she said. “To continue is the best way to get that message out.”