Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Steve Irwin - died doing what he loved doing.

` ...Just heard the news! (Yes, news does tend to take a while to reach me.)
` I used to think that Steve Irwin was entertaining as well as somewhat annoying, but I can be annoyed no longer. It's funny how death does that to a person's reputation.

` Ironically, he wasn't killed because he was being a moron - he was swimming with a normally harmless fish known as a stingray. In 1996, only seventeen people had been recorded of dying from its stings, and in fact, most stingray wounds are not considered dangerous. In fact, stingrays themselves are not considered dangerous:
` The fish only swing their stingers when they are already close to a potential attacker - they prefer to swim away when they are being pursued. Even my own mother has handled wild stingrays as part of a tour - a tour that is only possible because sting rays are characteristically docile and "sweet", as she puts it.

` Apparently the ray in question felt trapped against Steve as the two approached the cameraman and reflexively tried to get the wildlife expert to back down. Unexpectedly, the stinger went through Steve's chest and into his heart!
` Only one person has ever survived such an attack, and Steve was not it - by the time EMTs had arrived, he was already dead.
` Even more tragically, he was in the middle of doing something for his daughter, Bindi's television segment!

` I'm pretty sad about all this. When I had a TV, I loved Steve Irwin's shows... how he'd run around with a watchful eye on the crocodiles, making the kookaburras stop fighting and play nice, letting amazingly deadly snakes slither right up to him.
` ...Though I still would have to admit, I still think that Jeff Corwin has always been more... refined.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I heard about that, I thought to myself -- I knew he'd be killed by an animal, especially a venomous one... but I was thinking more of a deadly sea snake or maybe a Komodo dragon.

Steve-o, you'll be missed by me, too.

Aaron said...

Let's all be thankful that Steve Irwin lived. I never really found him to be annoying, mostly just funny.

Spoony Quine said...

` Indeed. He brought both goofiness and conservation awareness to the world. Who could have done that but him?

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