http://au.news.yahoo.com/060904/23/10ebv.html

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has reportedly been killed in a stingray attack near Cairns on Australia's far north coast.
It was believed Irwin had been swimming off the coast of Cairns when he was stung.

"It is understood he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest," Brisbane's Courier Mail reported this afternoon.

Irwin was best known for his documentary series "The Crocodile Hunter".

He was born in Victoria and found his love of animals after following in his father's footsteps, volunteering his services to the Queensland Government's East Coast Crocodile Management program.

He spent years living on his own in the mosquito infested creeks, rivers and mangroves of North Queensland, catching huge crocodiles single-handed.

In June 1992, he married American Terri Raines after they met when she visited Irwin's Australia Zoo.

The 44-year-old is survived by his wife and two children, Bindi and Robert.

This is crazy. I feel bad that the video will undoubtedly leak out as well...

Was it for a TV shoot or just his normal job duties?

Oh Geez. It almost seems unreal since I thought the guy would never be done in by something that didn't have lots and lots of teeth.

R.I.P. Loved your show and your love of animals/nature.

Whoa.

He pressed his luck one time too many.

crocodilehunter.com won't even load, must be getting pounded right now.

Thats a shame cuz he seemed a nice guy and wanted people to learn about nature. I never though it would be a dang stingray, though.

Wow, this is unbelieveable. I didn't believe it at first, but it's on several Australian news sites.

R.I.P. - I feel so sorry for his wife and kids.

RIP.

Crikey.

Jesus - that's pretty surreal.

RIP man, you always made good TV.

Definitely an unexpected death.

Sadly this was not pressing his luck. He was filming when the attack occured..per the news only 2 of these deaths have occured before his..EVER.

Very Sad

RIP

Wow, I hadn't heard this yet. One one hand, I'm suprised it took this long. On the other, I'm suprised it happened at all.

to making learning fun.

RIP what sucks most IMO is that I think both of his childern are very young. That will be really hard on the family. Having a dad and having no memory of him.

So the tail of the stingray can pierce thruogh man then? Didnt know it, and the odds of being killed by this and not by the land animals he films has to be million to one.

RIP.

His kids aren't that young. They'll have some kinds of memories of him, plus his memory will be kept alive by all the reruns of the show I'm sure they'll see over the years.

It is VERY SAD but at the same time quite a fitting way for the great man to go out.

Under the "stringray" listing, Wikipedia already has his death cited as an example of a fatal encounter.

Unexpected no. By a stingray, yes.

Holy crap! I knew an animal would end up killing him one day. Somehow it's still surprising. Wow. RIP

Damn, there goes another good one. I guess death by stingray is preferable to being mauled by a croc, but still...

Anyway, here's to ya mate. Give my regards to Jimmy Doohan and Fred Rogers when you get up there.

Very sad news RIP

He came up on top of the stingray. The stringray raised it's tail and attacked. The barb went right through his heart.

where did you read that magicmom?