And Just Like That...

Steve Irwin a.k.a. 'The Crocodile Hunter' Is Dead


Nope, the guy holding the wombat is Steve. The wombat has a name of its own.
Yep, the controversial Croc Hunter bought a farm.

AUSTRALIANS would be saddened and shocked by Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's death in a marine accident, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said today.

The 44-year-old was killed by a stingray barb which pierced his chest while he was shooting a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Vaile, who presented Mr Irwin with an Australian export award in 2004 for his Australia Zoo, said the Queenslander had made an amazing contribution to conservation and business.

"I was a tremendous fan of Steve Irwin because of his larger-than-life personality and his ability to highlight wildlife conservation in a way that people from all walks of life could identify with," the Nationals leader said.

"Steve Irwin's operations included his zoo, television series, The Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, and International Crocodile Rescue.

"Steve was an amazing Australian and my thoughts, and those of all the Nationals, are with Steve Irwin's wife Terri and his two children, Bindi Sue and Robert."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who used a photograph of his family at Australia Zoo for his official Christmas card last year, hailed Mr Irwin for his work in promoting Australia.

Mr Irwin was heavily involved in this year's "G'Day LA" campaign.

"The minister knew him, was fond of him and was very, very appreciative of all the work he'd done to promote Australia overseas," a spokesman said.

I guess in what many people will see as a kind of irony, he was done by a stingray and not a crocodile. I guess it was part of the risk undertaken in his "circus-barker-dances-with-dangerous-critters" style that one day he would be undone by one of his dancing partners.
At moments like this I wish I shared the wit of Brutus Colcagoon to write limmericks; but I'm going to try anyway:

There was once a hunter called Stevo
Who danced with crocs on his sleeve-o
When he tangoed a stingray
It gave him its best spray
and now he won't be playing for Devo

RIP Steve Irwin.

UPDATE:
Germaine Greer got into trouble for writing a less than complimentary eulogy, suggesting essentially the same thing as I wrote. Predictably, she is in media hot water. I even saw Kevin Rudd tell her on TV news to put a sock in it, but who knows if she'll get that message. I'm not willing to bet moey on it.
One of my favorite Yankee scribes Steve Goldman described the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as the 'Steve Irwin Assassins' and got e-mail complaints.

TO THE MATS WITH READER MAIL
1: THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FIRST
"Steve Irwin Assassins." Not wholesome. C'mon, scribe — you have better taste than that! — Tom

I loved Steve Irwin in the same way that one loves an eccentric relative. The first time I saw "The Crocodile Hunter" some friends were over to watch a football game and after the contest ended we were flipping channels. Suddenly we came across this weird Australian guy in shorts who seemed to own his own zoo and had absolutely no clue what to do with it. He had to clean the crocodile pen, and while most zoos would tranq the animals and move them to another pen, he explained that it was far more humane and less stressful for them if he just waded in and beat them into submission. In another segment he had to turn down the thermostat for a reptile enclosure, only the thermostat was inside a cage with some very twitchy poisonous snakes.

Somehow we never caught the name of the program, and for weeks after we told friends about the amazing "Stupid Zookeeper Show" we had seen on the Discovery Channel. After awhile we figured out what it was and came to appreciate Irwin's enthusiasm for his job, though part of the novelty was always watching him run into walls and do precisely the wrong thing when it came to encountering animals. Ironically, it seems that when he was killed he didn't do anything wrong. He was just tremendously unlucky. My equating Devil Rays with Irwin assassins was my way of saying that I'd miss the guy. Sorry that didn't come across. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

It's a small world with myopic folks. I'm with Steven Goldman on this. :)