Crocodile Hunter dies

I know they show some plane crashes. But I have yet to see that sort of death scene play out on YouTube.

Now, Irwin was selected to host President Bush at a barbecue in 2003.

Al-Jazeera might show it.

 

In Grizzly Man, you neither see nor hear the final attack. A woman listens to it -- there's no video, for reasons explained above -- on headphones and she is filmed reacting to it. Extremely horrific, apparently.
Wild animals are wild animals. They will kill you to defend themselves. Why some people insist on turning them into television critters remains beyond me.

 

One of the most eerie days of my life came a dozen years ago off Marathon, Atlantic side, sitting there in my 24-footer with a couple people in the water.

I noticed, in the distance... about 500 yards I would guess, what appeared to be a big, dark cloud, only it was underwater.

I started going all Jaws, yelling at my friends to get into the boat.

They did.

Two minutes later, the cloud passed us, on the left side.

It was hundreds of Manta Diablos packed like sardines.

Knowing that the creatures are utterly harmless did nothing to take away from our slack-jawed, unanimous reaction that it was one of the spookiest moments in any of our lives.

 

Not dissimilar to the idea of a motorcycle stunt workup killing Dar Robinson.

 

In memorium (This is really touching how much he loved those animals):

 

My kids' first taste of losing a celebrity they felt close to.

Pretty sad joint this morning.

 

Grizzly Man shot most of that footage himself. The audio of his attack has, to my knowledge, never been released.

 

I think if you had given Irwin the choice between dying in a hospital at age 80 or dying this way at 44, he probably would've taken 44.

Just underscores the fact that no matter how knowledgeable and skillful you are, when you're dealing with wild animals, you never completely know what's going to happen.

 

I wonder which choice his kids might have taken. Assuming, of course, that they were old enough to make an informed choice (which, of course, neither of them are).

I feel worst for them. I realize this may not be a popular viewpoint, but when he became a father he should have toned things WAY down. He owed it to his kids to be there for them. Now they're going to spend their lives paying for his recklessness.

 

Are those tears or crocodile tears? But seriously, that video shows how he treasures his relationship with animals.

I wonder if this was a total freak accident like he was swimming by and got poked, or more likely, he was holding one up to the camera, it got pissed and lanced him. Everything I've seen says that the majority of stingray injuries are from the ankle down.

As for the D-Rays changing their name, people have been mauled by Lions, Tigers and Bears and they are still around.

 

Just a sad story all the way around. I've done a little studying of rays in general (which, believe it or not, can be friendly creatures as long as they're not mishandled) and knowing how the barb enters the body, it's actually a little horrifying to think of someone getting impaled in the chest like that.

 

RIP Steve Irwin