View Full Version : The death of Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter)...
sly2kusa
09-04-2006, 2:16 PM
I'm sure most of you have heard by now that early Monday - Steve Irwin was killed by a Stingray (claimingly he took one to the chest from the Ray's tail).
Can anyone tell me more about the Stingray's tail? What scientific family this animal comes from, and just more info in general? I tried the species information link, but came up with nothing. There are a ton of threads out on Yahoo Q&A with a lot of confusing stories from people saying Stingray's are a type of shark, to people not understanding how someone could die from a Stingray's sting.
Much thanks in advance.
tks4d2
09-04-2006, 2:26 PM
Biggest hoax ever. He's alive and well...just check out his homepage
themadblimper
09-04-2006, 2:28 PM
OMG he's DEAD!?!?!
Well, from what I've read in other news sites, he took the stinger through the chest and it punctured his heart. That was how he died. That, and the venom the thing injected. Venom directly into the bloodstream isnt healthy you know... So, yeah. Now I'm off to mourn quite possibly the craziest man whom lived in the past decade...
almsk8s4life
09-04-2006, 2:43 PM
i hope my mate steve aint dead
daniel364
09-04-2006, 2:58 PM
Biggest hoax ever. He's alive and well...just check out his homepage
yeah sure it just all over the news over the world because its a hoax?
MonoSebaelover
09-04-2006, 3:10 PM
Please keep the thread here ONLY to info about stingray's, there is a thread in GCC that is on Irwin so you can debate him there (I HIGHLY doubt this is a hoax, I think he would have had to be INCREDIBLY close to the stingray for it to be able to go through his wet suit and all the way into his heart).
For more info regarding rays check here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/rays.htm Anyway hope this helps!
tks4d2
09-04-2006, 3:39 PM
oh man saw it on CNN. So sad! :(
plah831
09-04-2006, 3:57 PM
The stingray that got Steve was probably in the family Dasyatidae (at least that's my educated guess). The venom from stingrays is usually not dangerous, but very painful nonetheless. I think it only happened to kill him because it hit him directly in the heart (according to the news). Most people recover without any special treatment, I don't know if they even require antivenom or if they even make one for rays. Steve Irwin is only the third person in Australia to ever die from a stingray.
It's not like venomous snakes at all, in terms of potency. Snake venom is designed to kill prey, while stingray venom is merely a self defense mechanism. There are many wild sharks out there with several stingers from rays imbedded in their skin, and they are not bothered (of course the wounds have healed, so it's like a "piercing"). Stingrays can also lose their stingers and regrow them. In fact, researchers will even remove the stingers to make the animals easier to handle, with a pair of pliers and the stingrays are no worse for wear.
quiksilver
09-04-2006, 4:10 PM
the barb can be 10 inches long and has a serated edge on one side, a sting will put you in pain for about 6 hours. usually when they fell threatend they raise the barb up as a warning. i think his mate he was diving with said he was swimming directly above the stingray.
plah831
09-04-2006, 4:12 PM
Yep, and that some large sharks had just swum overhead. The ray was probably irritated by the sharks, and mistook Steve for one. Poor guy. When I heard where it hit him, I just assumed he was trying to hug it or something else foolish.
sly2kusa
09-04-2006, 5:24 PM
Biggest hoax ever. He's alive and well...just check out his homepage
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20349888-2,00.html
He was one extreme person. I always loved watching his specials and saying how nuts he was. To add to the question a sting ray is in the shark family as are skates, which are like rays without the barbs. Down here many parks have them in open lagoons, with sawfish and guitar fish, also in the shark family, where you can touch them. Although the sting rays have their barbs always filed down. I heard he kinda cornered a large ray and it did what nature intended, used its barb for defense. He probably would have just had a real bad wound that hurt, but either the ray or he moved the wrong way and it punctured his heart.
quiksilver
09-05-2006, 4:12 AM
it was a bull ray, large *******. it must have felt threatend in some way but thats the risk you take every time you go diving.
fastbackgly
09-05-2006, 7:17 PM
Rays, skates, sharks, etc. are all part of a family called elasmobranch. The barbs on stingrays are not filled with venom, and they do not inject the victim with venom. There is a poisonous mucus on the sheath that partially covers the barb and when someone is stung, the mucus rubs off in the wound causing serious pain, but certainly not direct death. The barb that hit Steve pierced a hole in his heart, later causing cardiac arrest. None of this was due to the poisonous barb, but simply to a stabbed heart. He was alert enough when he was pulled out of the water to pull the stinger out of his chest, since it broke off. There you go.
Any more questions on rays or other elasmobranches?
plah831
09-05-2006, 10:45 PM
well, to be exact "elasmobranchii" is a subclass under the class Chondrichthyes, and not a family. I looked up the Australian bull ray, and it is in the family Myliobatidae, like the bat ray on my coast. It is in the order Rajiformes, the skates and rays. This has been your friendly neighborhood fish systematics/taxonomy lesson :)
plah831
09-07-2006, 1:12 PM
I just got an update on the identity of the stingray that got Steve Irwin. I asked my advisor, Greg Cailliet (well known internationally for his ichthyology research), and he had spoken with Australian fish and wildlife wardens about this. He informed me that the newspapers are wrong, and that it was most likely not a bull ray (Myliobatid). It was probably another stingray belonging to the family Urolophidae or Dasyatidae (like I originally suspected).
But just to clarify, "elasmobranch" is NOT a Family designation, but rather a larger group of either Class or Subclass level. Of course, the individual sub-groupings will differ, depending on who you talk to. Fish taxonomy is still highly debated, especially as genetic analysis has been clarifying relationships of species and groups to one another. But no one would call "elasmobranchs" a Family, becaues the only things below that grouping are Genus and Species.
sorry, but I'm a fish nerd, plain and simple :p:
fastbackgly
09-07-2006, 4:58 PM
Apologies. I was typing fast late at night. I figured no one would care, or know the difference. Welcome to the fish nerd club, we meet on Tuesdays!
And I believe elasmobranchii is sub-class. Mos def.
plah831
09-07-2006, 5:22 PM
I figured no one would care, or know the difference. Welcome to the fish nerd club, we meet on Tuesdays!
I'll be there! :D
I apologize, too, if I sounded snotty. I've just had fish taxonomy shoved down my throat. I had to draw their phylogeny (down to Orders) from memory for my last Ichthyology class. If given a fish specimen, I had to give common name, scientific name, family, and Order. Yuck, I'm glad that class is over.